Born in Fire
by thegoodfight
Summary: Ethan Rayne comes looking for Xander over a year after the infamous Halloween. The only thing no one knows is why. Not to mention, what does Xander dreams have to do with all of it? YAHF Crossover with A:TLA
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **This is something that has been kicking around for a while and been working on it, slowly. I've had two computer crashes, lost all of my files and have been trying hard to rewrite, for the THIRD time, my other story. While I haven't given it up I need something else to work the ol' synapses out. So, hope you guys enjoy. Takes place right after "The Zeppo" in Buffy and spoilers for the whole series of both Buffy and Avatar. Oh, also, I own nothing since far more intelligent people than myself got paid to come up with this stuff.

**Chapter 1**

Fire surrounded him. The ground itself seemed to be made of the stuff and the heat of it began to blister some of his exposed skin but didn't burn him outright. Wherever he looked, all he was able to see were flames and the burnt area the fire had already consumed. How the fire started, where it came from to begin with, was a mystery. Why he was in the middle of it, however, wasn't. He deserved to be there. It was his place in the world, surrounded by the terrible savagery and beauty that the fire held. It wasn't hell, but at the moment it felt close enough to it.

With a feral cry, the young man leapt through the wall of flame before him, feeling it as it seared his flesh but still, he did not burn. Landing on his feet, the fire behind him now, he was able to properly see the destruction that the fire had caused. There had once been a forest off to the left but no trees stood now. All that was left was ash, soot, and the burnt fallen limbs of the great woods. To his right there was a cavernous hole that dropped off every few yards and inside, he knew that a body of water had once been there. Now it was nothing more than a dry canyon. His eyes fastened on what was in front of him and the sight almost brought him to his knees.

Bodies. Rows and rows of bodies stretched out before him as far as he could see. All of them had been affected by the fires as well. All of them were horribly disfigured, twisted and warped by the intense heat into forms that would have made it difficult to tell who they were let alone that they were actually human. Likewise, their flesh had all but melted off, some of it looking like melted wax. Like him, the heat would hurt them but refused to burn. There was no way to know who they were due to the damage done to them, except he knew. Instinctually he knew who the few bodies that were laid out before him were. Their faces, while disfigured, were clean enough for him to see with crystal clarity the anguish and torment each of them had went through. Their mouths open in soundless screams that would have torn their throats open if they had been able to.

Suddenly, his eyes opened and he found himself in darkness. It took him a moment, but finally Alexander Harris realized that he was in his bed. There was no fire. There were no bodies, only darkness and the sound of his heart threatening to burst through his chest. Letting out a shuddering breath, Xander wiped his hand across his face and found it damp with sweat. Not exactly surprising, really. At least this time he hadn't wet his bed. One time was enough, thank you very much.

Once he found his strength, he swung his legs over the side of his bed and made his way to the bathroom down the hall from his room. He didn't worry about making too much noise since his parents were passed out from another drunken night and wouldn't wake up unless the world was ending. The light hurt his eyes when he turned it on and he squinted as he turned the faucet and splashed his face with cold water. It was enough of a shock that his eyes flew wide open and he got a good look at himself in the mirror.

Dark circles and bags surrounded his eyes as he stared at them. His hair was messy and unkempt due to all the tossing and turning he had done while asleep. The smile that he usual had when he was with his friends was gone and in its place was serious almost sad look. This was the face he wore every time he woke up. It was the face he was beginning to wear more often when he was alone as well. After all, how was he supposed to look when he kept dreaming about his friends being horribly killed almost every night?

It had started a little over a year ago, a month or so after Halloween. Yes, that Halloween, the one where some jackass named Ethan Rayne had went ahead and turned almost everyone into whoever or whatever they had been dressed up as. Willow had been turned into a ghost, Buffy into some noble woman and Xander…well, no one really knew what he turned into. No one remembered seeing him all night and Xander couldn't remember a damn thing after the spell hit. He had meant to go as a wizard. He had bought a simple wooden staff from Ethan's store, after all the toy guns were gone, and had borrowed a robe from Giles. He had even went to the trouble of carving in some runes and symbols he had taken out of one of the books in the library after he made sure they were safe. When he should have been changed along with the rest of them something must have happened because instead of a night of casting spells or whatever the hell wizards did, he had woken up sitting in a field far from town.

There hadn't been any lasting effects from the spell, no one could do anything different or special, but he couldn't even remember anything. Nothing about whoever he had turned into. Not even anything from that night. Giles had rationalized it by saying that if it had been a wizard he had turned into, a real wizard, then they may have taken any memory he had of that night in order to keep whatever they did or knew a secret. They had no real way of knowing and, while concerned, Giles said that he had nothing to worry about after they were positive that he didn't remember a thing. Nothing to worry about, maybe, but it didn't make him feel any better.

A few weeks later, the dreams started. At first Xander didn't even remember them, just the vague sense of unease whenever he woke up. As time went on, he began to remember bits and pieces of them. Soon he experienced them in full Technicolor with surround sound. Not only that but parts of them were lingering when he woke. His skin would feel flush and hot to the touch for one thing. He would also swear that he could smell burnt...everything on his clothes for the brief few seconds when he didn't know if he was dreaming or awake yet. They had been getting more and more intense as time wore on and had recently been getting more detailed. As of late, the newest thing was the bodies.

He knew all of them by face, by name. They were his friends, people he cared about, both past and present. Willow. Buffy. Giles. Even Cordelia and Jesse where present in the field of tormented bodies in his dreams. Even his family was present, though God only knew why. He didn't know what it meant, but it was horrible. Out of everything, it was the worst part of the dreams by and large. Since he had started seeing them like that he hadn't been sleeping much. Usually when he woke up from his nightmares he'd calm down and go back to bed. Now he just stayed awake and as he looked at himself in the mirror it was easy to see that it was starting to get to him.

Once he relieved himself and was back in his room, Xander glanced at the clock and was happy to see that it was at least a quarter to five. He had made himself stay up as late as he could stand so that way when he was woken up he would have the least amount of time alone before he headed for school. He could deal with being on his own before he slept but for some reason, sitting and doing nothing, waiting for the time when he could be near the people he cared about drove him nuts. At least last night had provided him with more than enough distractions and kept him up for a good while. Then again, fighting zombies, having sex with Faith, stopping the school from blowing up and having sex with Faith, were more than enough to keep anyone distracted. Especially the having sex with Faith bit.

Sitting on his bed, Xander tried to find something to do with his mind other then think about the fact that he and Faith had slept together. It wasn't that he was tired of thinking about it, not at all. But if he kept thinking about it was libel to run over to her motel and beg not to be thrown out this time. He was still a man, in his own mind anyway, and that meant he had to have at least some pride. Maybe not a whole lot when he considered the rest of his life but he had to draw the line somewhere.

As he looked around his room, he went through the routine of looking for something, anything, to occupy himself with to while away the hours. He had exhausted all of his comic books, magazines and CD's. He had even tried to catch up on his school work for a brief period but that ended shortly after he realized that it was making him fall asleep and putting him dangerously close to going back into his nightmare. It was depressing how little there really was to do when you had enough spare time. He wasn't a deep thinker, not in the way Willow or Giles was. They could spend all of these hours he had free combing through book after book and still be ready for more.

Finally, after he looked at every spare inch of his room, searching in vain, his eyes fell on the closet door. Every night this happened, just like with the dreams. He would wake up, try to find something to do in a room with nothing in it, and he would find himself staring at that door. It wasn't the closet so much as what was in it. With a determined sigh, Xander got up, opened the door, and took out the plain wooden staff from Halloween.

It wasn't light but it wasn't large enough that you could really call it heavy. When he placed the end on the floor it came up about an inch or so above his head and was about as thick as his two thumbs. The balance on it was a little off, weighing a bit more on one end then the other, but he couldn't tell why. It seemed perfectly even from the look of it. Someone had gone to great length to smooth it down and at one point there might have even been a shine to it. Now there were a variety of nicks and tiny dents that made it look more like someone was had used it as a weapon than if it had been used for magic. The worst part was that when he held it, it felt right in his hands. That alone should have been enough for him to get rid of the damn thing but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Whatever the reason was, it kept him from tossing the staff out and it was probably what kept him from telling anyone about the dreams he had been having, though his own pride and shame also helped on that part.

Rolling the staff back and forth in his hands, Xander sat heavily in the chair at his desk and stared out the window. Soon the sun would be up enough that he could go outside and get some fresh air. It was too dangerous to do so at night even if it was almost over. There could be any number of late night stragglers out on the streets of Sunnydale waiting to snatch someone up and have them for a late dinner. The Hellmouth was a bitch in that regards but at least now Xander was well aware of it. Who knows what idiotic things he would have done if he didn't know about vampires and demons and pain in the ass chaos mage's?

A soft tap from outside broke through Xander's musing. Looking toward the window, he stared at it a full minute before it came again. It was soft but sharp. It sounded as if something was hitting the window but who in the hell would be tossing things at this time? Hell, who would be throwing things at the window at any time? Rising, he made his way to the window and pulled back the small curtain, peering outside. It was dark enough that there were plenty of shadows that anyone could hid in and it took him a moment before he was able to make out anything that wasn't in direct light that could have been making the noise. Across the street, hidden in the darkness by a house was a man that looked like he had stepped out of a bad detective novel. A long coat and what looked like dark clothes were all he could see, the man's features were too well hidden by the shadows to tell anything else.

Logic told him to stay inside where he was relatively safe. It told him that he should call Buffy or Giles or someone that would be able to back him up or come in for a rescue should he need it. All of that made pure, simple, sense and it was what he should do. For whatever reason though, he ignored that part of his brain that screamed at him to stay inside, grabbed a shirt and ran out of his bedroom and out the front door. Only after he was outside, his shirt thrown on backwards and inside out, did he notice that he still had the staff in his hands. Stopping before he crossed the street, Xander lifted the staff into what he thought would be a semi-defensive pose.

"Alright, who's out here?" Xander asked, his voice sounding louder in the silence of the early morning. Despite the fact that he was closer, he still wasn't able to make out who the man was still. At least until he spoke.

"I'm sorry. Is this where I introduce myself and divulge the whole reason to my being here?" The voice was British and even without seeing his face, Xander had the impression that he was smiling. "Sorry, that's not exactly how this is going to work."

"Rayne? Ethan Rayne?" Xander asked confused. His arms dropped a little bit in surprise, still trying to see the man's face.

Stepping out Ethan was in fact grinning, his hands stuck deep inside his trench coat. His eyes flicked to the staff in Xander's hands and his grin faltered a bit but he recovered quickly. "It's nice to be remembered."

"OK, so now that you've shown up all mystery man like, what do you want? You're not going door to door selling candy, are you? Cause let me tell ya, you can put me down for a whole case of that stuff."

"Sorry, all out," Ethan said with a shrug. His smile vanished and his eyes grew a bit darker. "You have twenty-four hours. You will meet me past the town limits, alone."

"Wait. What?"

"After twenty-four hours, I'll come looking for you. Trust me, young man. You don't want me looking for you."

Apparently that was all Ethan had wanted to say. He nodded his head, took a few steps back and disappeared into the shadows. Xander stared after him for a moment straining his eyes to make sure that Ethan hadn't just hidden himself really well.

"OK," he said to himself. "That wasn't the least bit creepy. Nope, not at all."

The wind picked up a bit and caused some dry leaves to rustle through the trees making Xander jump. He realized that he was outside, exposed, and alone. Turning his head to each side, Xander started backing away to the relative safety of his house. Nothing seemed like it was waiting to jump out and kill him but that didn't mean that there wasn't anything. Hell, Ethan Rayne had just popped out of nowhere and then walked away into the freaking shadows, so he wasn't really counting anything out.

Speaking of, why the hell did Ethan show up like that in the first place? For that matter, why to him? He had said that he had only a day to meet him outside of the town but didn't say why or what it was about, not that he expected him to. Ethan seemed a bit smarter than the usual villains that he and the gang went up against. The guy had even joked about not falling into that clichéd role. It didn't help to explain anything, and Xander didn't really think that he would be able to make any sense of this on his own. The only thing he knew was that Ethan had given him a time limit, had given _him_ of all people a time limit to meet him.

He needed Giles. He needed Buffy. More importantly, he needed them fast.

_**BREAKBREAKBREAKBREAK**_

Making his way through the crowded halls, Xander headed for the library hoping to catch Giles before classes started. Hell, who was he kidding? He wasn't going to let a little thing like class get in-between him saving his own skin. Besides, it wasn't as he would be paying any attention anyway if he was there. He would have much rather preferred to have slept in this morning after last night's zombie fiasco but no, he had to run around trying to not get killed or kidnapped or whatever the hell Ethan had planned.

Opening the doors with more force than necessary, Xander startled a weary and obviously pained looking Giles. The older man had been sitting in a chair by one of the tables that had been moved to the far side of the Library. His arm was in a cast and had a bandaged on his forehead. There were dark circles under his eyes as well, almost as if he hadn't slept at all. When he jumped up from the noise his face cringed in pain and he forced himself to ease up instead, his good arm clutching his left ribs.

With wide eyes, Xander took in the Library. "Whoa. Giles, what happened?" The floor had a large hole in it. Almost as large as it had the night the Hellmouth had opened up a couple of years back. In fact, it was in the same exact place as well. Xander may not have had the reputation for being the smartest of the Scooby Gang, or in the school or even the town, but he wasn't as dumb as people thought. Besides, a gaping hole right above the Hellmouth coupled with everyone acting really bizarre last night made things really simple to put together.

"Giles, when...when did this happen?" Xander continued to stare at the hole in the floor while slowly making his way over to Giles.

"Uh, last night as a matter of fact," Giles said wincing in pain as he straightened himself. "It was the Sisterhood. They tried to open the Hellmouth."

"I, uh, I guess since we're all still here they didn't succeed."

Giles smirked despite his pain. "No. I suppose they didn't."

"No one told me," Xander said softly. He knew that they had been pushing him away last night, that he was being kept out of whatever was going on, but he didn't think it was something like this. Things had been so hectic last night that he hadn't even had time to be hurt by it. But now, seeing what could have happened, what his friends tried to push him away from, the hurt came back. Things had gotten bad last night and they didn't think he would handle it. How else was he supposed to feel?

Ignoring the pain he felt, Xander shook his head and got down to business. "Whatever. Giles, we have a problem. Ethan Rayne came to pay me a visit last night."

"Dear Lord," Giles said, his face growing serious. "What happened? What did he say?"

"He wants me to meet him. Tomorrow morning, outside of town. He was really digging the creepy vibe. Disappeared right into the shadows after he said his piece." Xander dropped his bag on the table and let out a breath. "I'm serious, Giles. He came out of nowhere and vanished."

"He snuck into your bedroom?" Giles asked.

"Eh, sort of. But kind of not the point here."

"Yes. Right." Giles got a thoughtful expression on his face for a moment, clearly working out the problem. "The last time Ethan was in town he was hired by Mr. Trick. He didn't want to gain our attention but for whatever reason he's come out in the open. Not only making himself known but making demands as well. The only question is, why you, Xander? He didn't come after either myself or even Buffy, but you."

"Yeah, that's about the gist of it," Xander nodded. He waited a few moments watching as Giles continued to think.

Running a hand through his hair, Giles started to look angry. "Dammit, I haven't a clue as to what Ethan's playing at this time. Ethan was always unpredictable but only to certain degrees. Most of the time I could at least get a vague idea as to what games he was playing but this time…damn!"

"Well, this makes me feel a whole lot better," Xander joked darkly.

With a sympathetic look, Giles said, "I'm only saying that I don't know at the moment, Xander. Give me some time and we'll track down Ethan before he said to meet him. I may not know what he's playing at, but he won't get whatever it is he's after."

After a moment, Xander sighed and felt some of the tension release itself from his shoulders. He didn't realize how much he was relying and wanting of Giles help. He didn't think about how scared he was until this very moment. Ethan may have only shown up less than a handful of times but each one had caused more problems than your typical vampire. At least with them, you understood what they wanted and knew what to do. Ethan was far from that easy to figure out and he needed Giles, he needed his friends, to help him with it.

Though now that fear was hitting him, hard. Without knowing exactly what the chaos mage wanted from him, his mind was wandering to all sorts of dark scenarios. It couldn't be something as simple as just wanting him dead. If that was the case, there really wasn't much he could do to stop him and he would have done it earlier this morning. So, he wanted to take him somewhere, he needed him for something. Whatever it was, Xander doubted that it involved soft fuzzy things and a cash prize.

At least he had help now, he had Giles. The man who knew pretty much everything as far as Xander was concerned, and whatever he didn't know he had a book on it. It wasn't exactly a secret that Buffy, Willow, and himself had grown closer to the man over the years and battles they fought together. Xander probably wouldn't go as far as to say that he was father figure to them, but was the only positive male role model that he has had in a long time. Even if Buffy, and by extension, Giles, were pushing him out of the front lines he had no doubt in his mind that the older man would be there to help him.

Giles nodded his head and began thinking out loud again. "The first thing we'll need to do is let Buffy know. I don't know if she'll be in early or not, everything considered but-"

"Let Buffy know what?"

Both men turned to the library doors to find Buffy walking in. She was slightly stiff as she made her way over. Apparently whatever they fought last night had a major wallop to it if the Slayer was still nursing injuries. She never completely healed over night but to be walking the way she was and with her left arm hanging a bit looser at her side meant that she was going to be less than a hundred percent for at least another day or two.

"Giles, what happened?" Buffy asked.

OK, scratch that, Xander amended. Whatever went down here last night didn't just hurt Buffy physically but still had her spooked mentally. She jumped into Slayer mode way to fast.

Picking up on it as well, Giles placed his good hand on her shoulder in a calming fashion. "It's OK, Buffy, relax. We just...have a bit of a situation is all."

Looking confused, Buffy turned to Xander who only shrugged in response. "Ethan's out to get me."

Blinking once, Buffy opened her mouth to respond, thought better of it, and blinked again. "What?"

With more detail this time, not that there was much more, Xander went over what happened earlier that morning. Buffy wasn't skeptical of his story at least, but was more convinced that it was a trick to either lure herself or Giles into a trap. It made sense, in a kind of insulting way. After all, who was Xander in the grand scheme of things?

"Assuming that you're right, Buffy, what would be the point? It would be much easier to come after either of us through different channels than it would through Xander," Giles said. "Ethan has always been a rather straight forward opponent, even back when we were friends. Yes, he may attack you from the sides and use misdirection in his plans but they were always something that you could see coming. He never went after someone who he didn't want to, didn't have any issue with."

"Giles, we're talking about a guy who turned everyone into their costumes just for his own sick amusement. He tried to sick that demon thing on me after that and then made everyone revert to teenagers just so someone could steal babies for a sacrifice. Babies, Giles! I don't put anything past him." Buffy fumed for a moment, her eyes going hard with anger.

"I understand your feelings but we need to go after this with a clear head. At the moment, we know nothing more then what Ethan told Xander. Our first priority should be trying to locate Ethan before they have to meet."

Xander shook his head. "So…what? We hit the streets and just start shouting his name? Cause I'm pretty sure that he won't come out to play just cause we asked him to."

"Then we ask nicely." Buffy smiled without any humor.

"Would this nice way have anything to do with punching and possible beating up some things?"

"Oh, you can pretty much bet on that. It's too early for Willies to be open but there are a few other places in town that might know something." Buffy started to turn around but winced and faltered. She had spun on her heels to fast and her ribs had protested causing her pain.

"Why don't I come with, Buff?" He saw her about to protest but beat her to the punch. "He made this about me. I need to help you on this one. Besides, if he jumps the gun I'm better protected being near you rather than by myself, right?"

She wanted to argue but he had made sure that it was all about protecting him rather than the fact that she wasn't up to her usual game. Even the Slayer needed someone to watch her back once in a while but if he had brought it to her that way, she would have shot him down. This way, her ego was intact and she had backup.

"Giles, if Willow comes in-" Buffy started only to have Giles interrupt her.

"I'll let her know what's going. I wasn't hit that hard on the head." He offered her a small smile which she returned, if only a bit sadder. "There is one thing that's been bothering me about what Ethan said to you, Xander."

"Oh? What's that?"

"Why would he want to meet you outside of the town limits? He's worked in Sunnydale before. I can see no reason why this would be any different."

Neither Buffy or Xander had an answer for him. As the left, they could only hope that they wouldn't find out before it was too late.

_**BREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAK**_

Almost the whole day had passed before Buffy and Xander had decided to return to the library. As they walked down the street towards the school, neither was in a good mood. Everywhere they turned for answers had been a bust. No one knew anything about Ethan being back in Sunnydale and the only thing that anyone was planning was a demon turf war that was being settled with kittens of all things. After all that time, they still were left with nothing and time was winding down.

Was Xander starting to get worried? No, not at all. He was too used to things getting done at the eleventh hour to be too concerned. Right now he would say he was more nervous than worried. Maybe a bit scared, but who wouldn't be right? But no, not worried. Not in the slightest. His legs just felt like rubber cause of all the walking they had been doing.

He didn't trust himself to drive, which was _not_ because of his concern, or lack thereof, and letting Buffy behind the wheel was completely out of the question. Forget about Ethan, Buffy would have him finished off. So they walked everywhere. Oddly enough, he wasn't really tired from it. He knew he should be, but he felt comfortable walking long distances ever since the Halloween with Ethan, one of the few changes that he was able to quantify. The dreams were the other and he'd rather not have them to begin with or even think about it.

"So, Hellmouth opened, huh?" Xander said out of nowhere. He had laid off the subject all day, not even hinting at it. They had more important things to worry about than her pushing him away from the fighting, from the "danger" that Sunnydale provided. He wasn't even sure why he asked now of all times, but it was as good a time as any.

Buffy stiffened at the question but didn't falter in her steps. She didn't say anything at first, just kept walking, though when her steps slowed a bit, Xander matched her pace.

"It's getting too dangerous, Xand. Last night proved it. We barely survived it and..." Buffy stopped herself, trying to find the right words.

"And you guys all have super powers, I get it," Xander finished for her. "But what does that have to do with anything? How many times have I put myself on the line for you, Buff? I've been with you, every step of the way."

"I know that!" she snapped. Letting out a sigh, Buffy calmed herself before speaking. "I know that. It's why I don't want you to get hurt. I care too much about you to let anything happen to you."

"You do remember where we live, right? Are you gonna pack up my stuff and ship me off some place? This is still my town, it's where I live. The schools over the freaking mouth of hell, for Christ sake. I'm never going to be safe, Buffy. Not as long as I live here. Not as long as I know what's out there."

"Yeah, but you won't be putting yourself in danger because of me. You won't have to deal with all of the strangeness and all the death that goes with knowing the Slayer," Buffy said quietly.

Xander wanted to be angry. He wanted to yell at her for making up his mind for him, for not even talking to him about it first. He wanted to remind her that she wouldn't even be standing here right now if it wasn't for him. Let her know that he had saved her life along with everyone else's just last night all by himself. He wanted to do all of those things, but he didn't. A small part of him told himself to relax, to calm down and think it through. He had always had that little voice inside his head but usually his emotions got the better of him. As of late, though, the voice had been winning out more and more.

So, he listened and thought about it. Buffy was angry, that was obvious. More than that, she was worried. She didn't want him to get hurt because of her. When she looked at the others, she saw people that could take care of themselves but also people that would and could fight her if she tried to push them out. He couldn't and she was using that against him. She wasn't just doing this for him, she was doing this for herself. If he was in her shoes, could he really say that he wouldn't want to do the same? Would he be able to handle the death of someone close to him if he thought that it had happened because of him?

Something inside of him whispered, _Never again. _

"I get it, Buffy. I really do." He watched as she arched an eyebrow in disbelief before continuing. "I get it, but that doesn't change anything. You're worried that I'm going to do something stupid and get killed. OK, I'll give you that. But I can't walk away from this. I know too much, seen too much."

"I can stop you," She told him half heartedly.

Chuckling, he gave her a quick smile. "Yea, you could. But you won't."

Punching him in the arm, Buffy smiled herself as Xander winced and tried not to show it. "I get it, OK. You won't back down with this. But...you have to be more careful."

Their conversation was halted as they reached the school grounds. Hardly anyone was left on campus at this time of day but off to the side a construction crew where setting up some equipment and bringing it inside. A few planks of wood where piled off to one side which Xander could only guess meant that they were there to repair the library. If that hadn't given them away, Giles and Willow standing over by the main doors made it clear. Willow waved them over and the two went over. They weren't done talking, but it was better than they been before. At least Xander hoped they were.

"They kicked us out," Giles spat.

"They what? They can do that?" Xander asked shocked. "Does no one have any respect for private property anymore?"

"There's a giant hole in the floor," Willow told him, adding, "Uh, also, it's a school. Not exactly private."

"Yea, well, still. It's where Giles works," Xander replied lamely.

Switching topic, Giles turned his attention to Buffy. "I don't suppose that you had any luck."

Shaking her head, she said, "No one knows anything. Whatever Ethan's planning he's kept it to himself. Please tell me you guys have had more luck."

"I'm afraid not. Obviously researching through the books weren't going to be a help but unfortunately my contact numbers are inside my office and that..._man_ won't let me in to retrieve them."

"You don't have a back-up set at home?" Buffy asked surprised.

"It would defeat the purpose of a confidential list, wouldn't it," Giles said tightly. After a moment, he mumbled, "And I left my other copy in the cabinet in the book cage."

Xander smiled despite the situation. He seemed to be the only one who found it amusing since Willow and Buffy only frowned.

Sobering his face a bit, Xander asked, "OK, so now what?"

Opening his mouth, Giles went to say something but stopped. Shaking his head, Giles gave him a sympathetic look. "Honestly, I'm not sure. Th-there are no leads on where Ethan is and we have no idea what he's planning."

"Maybe he's bluffing. You know, maybe he just thinks that Xander would show up if he _thought_ that he was going to come after him," Willow suggested only to have her idea shot down by Giles.

"No, Ethan may use a trick or two when his back is against the wall but he rarely ever bluffs out right. If Ethan says that he'll come to get you if you don't show up, well, I'm afraid that he actual will." Giles paused, lost in thought.

Jumping in, Buffy said with forced cheer, "So, when he shows up, we ask him to go away."

"Ask him to go away?" Xander asked confused.

"Nicely." Buffy smiled tightly, her knuckles popping as she tightened her fist.

"I'm afraid it won't be that simple," Giles said darkly. Something in his demeanor had changed and the three teenagers all noticed it. Taking a few steps off to the side, Giles remained silent but his agitation increased. "It isn't that simple. Every time we've had to deal with Ethan recently, he's been...playing. The closest that any of you have come to seeing what Ethan is truly willing to do when he sets his mind to it would be with...with Eyghon and even that was toned down.

"If Ethan has set out to come for Xander, he won't come at him from the front. He wouldn't even come for him from the sides. I've known him to...do some rather questionable and disturbing things while pursuing his goals. Chances are that our best bet to save Xander would be to get him out of Sunnydale as fast as possible."

"Run?" Xander suddenly felt angry at the idea and couldn't explain why. Something about fleeing bothered him. He'd run away from danger plenty of times in his life. Hell, he'd done it several times this past month. It had recently started bugging him. It was the main reason why he had started throwing himself into the fights more and more. It didn't make any sense why he was feeling this way but the very idea of running made him want to stand and fight more. "That isn't an option, Giles. I'm not heading for the hills just because Ethan's threatening me."

Something in his voice made everyone stop and look at him for a moment. Maybe it was the determination in it or some of the anger he felt at the idea of fleeing bleeding into his voice but it stopped anyone from immediately dismissing his idea on the subject. It wasn't that they agreed with him, but merely telling him that he didn't know what he was saying would only lead to a fight with nothing short of knocking him unconscious and dragging him off would changing his mind.

"You have a better idea?" Buffy asked hotly.

"Um...no, not really."

Again, silence fell over the group. Xander was determined not to run away but except for actually meeting Ethan, there weren't any other options. He could always do that, he supposed, but after some fear fuelled mildly witty banter, he'd just end up being captured or whatever it was that Ethan had planned for him.

After several moments, Willow spoke up. "Hey, uh, it's not much of a plan but, I have a really bad idea."

_**BREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAK**_

Five o'clock in the morning was a very interesting time. The sun wasn't up yet but you could almost feel it as it inched its way up to the horizon. The moon had set almost an hour before and had cast the whole sky into a blue black ink that no ambient light seemed to permeate. When you live in a city or a town, it's not that big of a deal. The lamp post and various other lights help make it so that way everything is easy to see. The only thing that gets to you is how deep the shadows can be and your brain starts to imagine all the nasty things that could be waiting and hiding in them, ready to pounce on top of you at the first opportunity. But, you turn on more lights and wait for the sun to rise and try not to think too hard about it or notice that you just inched yourself away from the shadows.

Out in the middle of the desert, however, it's a completely different story. There are no lamp post or store fronts casting protective pools of light and without the headlights of the car behind them Xander and Giles were standing in complete darkness waiting for Ethan to jump out. It was also cold, as was to be expected. A lot of people didn't realize just how chilly the desert at night could be. Pulling his coat tighter around himself, Xander couldn't help but think about how poorly put together this plan was. Glancing over at the man next to him, Xander could see that Giles was thinking the very same thing. Either that or he had just decided that grumpy and tense was a good look for him.

Neither got the chance to comment on it, however, since off in the distance a car flashed its high beams twice and started forward. It surprised Xander by how close the car had been without either of them picking up on it. Maybe Ethan had it cloaked somehow or it had a really quiet engine. No matter what the reason, it threw him off and caused him to tense even more than he already was.

Stopping a good ten feet away, Ethan got out of the car and smiled confidently to the pair. "Rupert, how very good of you to come. Hope I'm not keeping you from anything." Turning to Xander, he said, "Now, don't tell me that you didn't trust me enough to come alone like I said. It would hurt my feelings."

"Yea, that's me. All concerned over how I make you feel," Xander replied glibly.

"If I were in your position, boy, I would be." Ethan's smile darkened some but he went on speaking. "Now, I can only imagine that if you're here, Rupert, that your Slayer can't be far. Probably off in what she thinks is a clever little hiding spot with her little budding witchingly, hmm? Don't worry. I had a feeling that if you did show up, which is something I really hadn't counted on, that you'd have brought friends. Luckily, so did I."

With a wolf whistle, Ethan motioned towards his car. The remaining doors opened up and out came four large demons. When Xander saw them he really didn't understand how they had all fit into the car without its roof being dented up. Their skin was such a deep blue that in the darkness they seemed almost black. Still, it was easy to make out the thick slabs of muscle that encased all of their upper body. Their lower extremities, however, seemed far too thin to support the rest of their bodies. Instead of normal legs, normal for demons anyway, they had reverse jointed goat legs matted with thick fur. Their faces didn't seem goat like at all, just angry as they glared at Xander and Giles with beady yellow eyes.

Ethan was enjoying the reaction that the demons were getting. "If you come along peacefully, I won't have to tell my associates to rip your friend's limb from limb. Of course, if you do put up a fight, I can't promise that they'll do that first. From what I've been told, they have a tendency to...play with their victims before killing them."

This wasn't the plan. They had talked about this very thing but Giles had sworn that Ethan would never use any kind of demon or creature to do his bidding. Not only had that whole mess with Eyghon soured his taste for demons, but apparently chaos magic never worked well with controlling demons. Even working with them seemed to be difficult and sketchy with that type of magic buzzing around in the air. They had prepared to deal with magic and even vampires but demons of this caliber and size they just hadn't thought it would happen. Yet, here they were, staring down at them and ready to fight.

"You bastard," Giles cursed. "What in God's name are you even doing with these...things? Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"Did you honestly believe that I wouldn't be prepared? You have no idea what's going on or what he is. Things have changed, Rupert." Ethan shook his head before addressing Xander. "What's it going to be, boy? I don't have all day. Well, I do, actually but honestly I'd rather not waste it standing around here with you lot. Call the Slayer out into the open and come with me."

As if on cue, Buffy came out from behind a large rock that was fifteen feet off to the right of Ethan and his demons. A long sword was in her hand and her face was set in a fierce scowl. If the sight of a pissed off Slayer bothered the demons any, they didn't show it. What did make them pause a second was when Willow stepped out right behind her. It took a moment for Xander to realize that it wasn't the redhead that had caught their attention but rather what was at her side. In full werewolf mode was Oz looking rather dazed and confused. That was due to Willow's spell, something that was keeping him subdued and under her control so long as she didn't break contact with him or stop the incantation that she was quietly muttering. Still, just in case, Giles had a small pistol sized tranquilizer gun in his coat pocket should Oz break free.

Bringing Oz was one of the few surprises that Willow had thought of on short notice. It was dangerous and scary but it was also a bluff. They had originally planned on using the werewolf to scare Ethan into backing off, threatening to let him lose on the mage if he didn't leave them alone and tell them what he wanted with Xander. Oz hadn't been too happy about the idea, he was too afraid that something would go wrong and he'd end up hurting one of them but in the end, he agreed. At the moment, it seemed like the dumbest idea in the world. If the demons attacked there was no way Willow would be able to keep her hold on werewolf-Oz's mind. He'd start attacking anything and everything in sight which included Willow and Buffy.

"You domesticated the werewolf? I must say, I'm impressed," Ethan said quietly. He was put off but not enough to back down by any means. "I wonder if I still have that number for that chap back in Brazil. You remember him Rupert. The man was offering a neat price on that werewolf back in Cardiff. I don't know if it was for the pelt or for the meat though."

Willow's eyes widened in horror but she didn't let the spell drop.

"Don't be a fool, boy. You lot can't win this and you know it." Ethan's voice was very matter of fact, not pleading but trying to get through to him with reason. "Either way, you're coming with me."

The anger that had been building up inside of Xander was near its boiling point. Threatening his friends was a sure fire way to make him do something suicidal level stupid. As it was, he was doing a good job of holding himself back. The short sword that was strapped behind his back itched to be pulled loose and cut Ethan's smug face off. Instead he simply readied himself, mimicking Giles who also tensed himself to grab the battle axe on his own back in his one good hand.

Seeing that he wasn't getting anywhere, Ethan sighed. "Have it your way. Boy's, grab him and don't hurt him much. The rest...whatever you feel is best."

A lot of things happened at once. The four hulking demons ran in different directions, two of them heading for Xander and Giles while the other two went for Buffy. They moved faster than Xander had thought they would on those cloven feet but then again ten feet isn't that far. Xander and Giles waited for the last moment then dove off to the side of the convertible behind them that suddenly revved its engine. The high beams flicked on, blinding both demons and disorienting them so that they stalled long enough for Willow's second surprise, namely Angel, to jump out of the front seat he had been hiding in. Immediately he set about attacking both demons with vicious strikes but none of it seemed to be doing a great deal of damage.

Pushing himself off the ground, Giles started in to help Angel. Even injured the older man was still dangerous, smoothly pulling the axe from its sheath and swinging it at one of the creatures head. It must have seen it coming because it rolled its shoulders and received a gash on its arm that pissed it off more than hurt it.

A feral growl grabbed Xander's attention and he turned to see what he was afraid of. Oz had broken free of Willow's mystical hold and was looking around wildly. For whatever reason he didn't go after the witch herself, instead he focused on one of the oncoming demons and with a growl launched himself at the thing, forcing it to deal with the enraged werewolf and effectively slowing it down for the time being.

Buffy was to be dealing with the one blue skinned goat demon but it was a near thing. She was strong but whatever the thing was seemed stronger. The sword was the only thing that was giving her enough of an edge to hold her own but it wouldn't last.

As he got himself off the ground and pulled the sword free, Xander saw Ethan still standing by the car he had arrived in. He didn't have time to really pay it any attention but from it looked like the man was on a cell phone. As Xander ran to help Angel and Giles, he had time to wonder who would be so important that Ethan would call in the middle of all this.

With a swipe of the sword, Xander cut into the arm of demon Giles was fighting. It at least caused the thing to switch its focus away from the Watcher which gave him time to re-group for a second and attack while its attention was elsewhere. The back and forth routine worked only twice more before the demon let out a bellow of rage, stamped its hoof on the ground, and ran straight at Xander. It was too quick to defend against or move out of the way. The air was knocked out of his lungs and his feet left the ground. His sword flew out of his hand as he tumbled to a stop and the world spun to fast at the moment to get up.

Xander was able to hear the sounds of fighting going on around him but couldn't find it in him to get up or even look around. He didn't know how long he stayed in that position, trying to focus and get his muscles to listen to him, but his eyes snapped open when he heard a sharp yelp and Willow cry out.

Turning his head to the noise, he was just in time to see the demon that had been fighting Oz, toss the werewolf's limp form to the ground. His head was at an odd angle and from a distance it didn't look as if he was breathing. Willow was staring to run towards her downed boyfriend but was pulled into a bear hug by the demon before she was able to get to him. She fought against him, for all the good it did, but she was just too weak to do any good.

Forcing himself up, Xander had just gotten to his feet, full of rage when he got knocked back down again. Apparently Angel and Giles weren't fairing any better since the demon that had rammed into him was able to focus all of its attention on him. Hauling him up and off the ground, Xander figured it was just going to drag him over to Ethan. Apparently they didn't care to listen to him that well since instead he got tossed through the air and hit the ground hard, again, sprawling himself flat on his back. His head was spinning but he didn't have time to focus on that since before he knew it a hoof drove itself into his stomach with the strength of a sledgehammer.

The attack kept on going, blows hitting every part of his body. He was sure that he heard yelling and screaming but they seemed far away and unimportant at the moment. Even the pain that his body was experiencing seemed tiny compared to what he felt inside of him. Something was welling up and bubbling over his whole body. Something he couldn't describe but that needed to be let loose. What it was, it felt...powerful.

His eyes opened and he focused on something off in the distant. A star, which seemed funny since he knew that there weren't any stars out at this time. Besides, it was too bright to be a star anyway. Also, he was pretty sure that stars didn't grow as if they were coming closer.

The hits stopped suddenly, which Xander was grateful for somewhere in the back of his mind. He felt himself start to rise suddenly but didn't know how. He didn't get up, he justfelt himself get up off the ground, and the demon backed away. The not-star in the sky had gotten larger. It was moving far too fast and was way too big him to even wager a guess at what it could be. He wasn't afraid of it though, it didn't bother him to watch it coming closer at breakneck speed despite how everything else seemed to be going in slow motion.

The light, for lack of a better description, was on him in an instant. He felt it course through him, somehow empowering him. Then, there was the feeling of being grabbed by the back of his shirt and being hauled away.

**"We need to talk." **Came a hollow, resonating voice. Then, Xander felt nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: **_First and foremost, thanks to everybody that read and left some feedback. I found out a few interesting new things and got a new book to read so thanks! But, as someone pointed out to me, and hit me on the head for, the things I thought were hints weren't hints so it was dumb of me to have people guess. So, I'm going to go back and fix it in the description. Well, here ya go. Hope people stick with it and thanks again.

Chapter 2

Looking around wildly, Xander tried to get his bearings but couldn't calm down enough to concentrate. Wherever he was, it wasn't the desert he had been in only moments before. The whole landscape from what he could tell looked like no part of Sunnydale he had ever seen. Hell, it didn't even look like anywhere in Southern California. It seemed like some kind of hybrid between a forest and a jungle more anything. Trees were in every direction, an odd mix of Evergreens, Maples, and Oaks as well as some type of Palm Tree and some trees that he couldn't name. A few of them were so big and ancient he couldn't see the tops of them from his position.

In the distance, through the trees, he could make out an expansion of rolling hills that looked as if it could rival some small mountain ranges. In fact, if he peered past them, he could make out what looked to be actual mountains surrounding the whole area, their peeks so high that clouds obscured them from view. No matter what, he should be able to remember leaving Sunnydale and coming to a place like this, unless of course his brain was being messed with again. Though if that was the case, anything possible. There weren't any demons around or his friends though. It didn't make any sense.

Scrambling to his feet, Xander tried to think clearly. "OK, calm down. Don't freak out. Just keep breathing." Taking a few deep breathes Xander broke out in a nervous smile. "That's it, air is good. Keep breathing, calm down, and think this through."

"Well, that's usually a good start," a voice said behind him to his right.

Slowly, Xander turned and tried to mentally prepare himself for whatever he might find. He didn't think his mind could take much more but he'd prefer to do what he could to hold onto what little sanity he might have left. If he was going to come face to face with some hellish beast then he'd rather go down fighting or running rather than foaming at the mouth and babbling. What he saw, though, didn't terrify him but only added to his confusion.

Sitting crossed legged on a rock was some kid who couldn't have been more then twelve or thirteen years old. He wore a pair of faded yellow pants made from a cloth Xander had never seen before and a brown sash across his chest along with a necklace made of yellowish beads with a large circular pendant in the middle. He didn't have on shoes but he looked more comfortable that way. Without a real shirt on Xander could plainly see the tattoo that ran up and down the boy's arms in the shape of arrows. The whole thing disappeared behind his back and reappeared at the top of the kid's bald head. All he could think was how painful it must have been to have that done.

He wasn't a big kid, almost too thin really. But when Xander took a better look he realized that the boy had extremely well toned muscles all over his body. His arms, chest and legs would rival any Olympic gymnast or swimmer his age, and most older ones too. There was power in his small frame as well and not just because of his definition. It came off of him in as a calm, quiet, sort of power. Something that if needed could be unleashed with terrifying consequences. But he was just still just a kid.

"I, uh, don't suppose you're just in my head, are you?" Xander asked with a small bit of hope in his voice.

"Nope. I'm as real as you are." The kid told him.

"Oh. OK then," Xander said before beginning to pinch himself.

"Um...why are you doing that?"

"Just hoping you were wrong," Xander said feeling a nervous laugh threatening to escape from his mouth.

The boy stood up from the rock and hopped down to the grass. "Listen, this isn't going to be easy for you but you have to listen to me. We don't have a whole lot of time and there's a lot to talk about."

"There is?"

"Yes." Standing straight, the boy made what looked to Xander to be some sort of martial arts bow, folding his fist in one hand. "My name's Aang. I'm, uh, sort of responsible for all of this."

"You?" Xander asked the boy, Aang, who was looking slightly sheepish. "How in the world is this your fault?"

Standing up again, Aang rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, it's not _exactly_ my fault, not really. I didn't make it happen or anything, it just sort of...did. I don't even know _how_ it happened."

"Well, that makes two of us. But then again, it might help if I knew what you're talking about." Xander felt his head begin to hurt and rubbed his temple. "Alright, let's start with something simple. Where are we?"

"The Spirit World," Aang responded.

"The...the what?"

"The realm where the great spirits of the universe live. All of this," Aang spread his arms out, emphasizing his point. "Was created by them, for them. They reside here when they aren't in the human world."

Blinking once, Xander closed his eyes. "OK, when I open my eyes, this hallucination will be over and I'll wake up in a nice safe, sane, desert being attacked by a goat demon...thing."

Aang grabbed Xander's arm and stopped him from covering his face. "Xander, cut it out. We don't have a lot of time. Really, you need to listen to me!"

"Ah ha! If I'm not crazy than how do you know my name, huh?"

"Because I was you. I _am _you," Aang stated. "I'm you just as much as you're me."

"What does that even mean? That makes no sense!" Xander cried out, yanking his arm free from Aang. "As far as I'm concerned this is all the result of a nice concussion."

Throwing his arms up in the air, Aang let out a frustrated noise. "I became you! My spirit somehow ended up in your body. I didn't even think something like that could happen."

"Hold up." Xander stood back a little and looked Aang up and down. "You're him, aren't you? You're the wizard that took over my body last Halloween?"

Pausing, Aang asked confused, "What's a wizard?"

"You know what? That's it." Xander turned around and started walking away. "I'm completely lost here and officially don't care. I want out of this place and I want to go back home, right now. You got me? My friends are in danger and that's all that matters right now."

Without warning the sun that had been in the sky vanished. Darkness descended the whole land for a moment before a bright white moon appeared in the sky, giving light to the area. The sudden shift from day to night made Xander falter in his steps and, bracing himself on a nearby tree, he stopped. A beam of moonlight, brighter than the normal pale light it was giving off, shone down through the tree tops onto a spot a few feet in front of Xander. In the moonbeam a woman stood.

It was hard to explain, to Xander the woman didn't just appear. It was more as if she had always been there but he was only now seeing her which didn't make much sense. How could he have missed a whole other person who was so close to him? Then again, not many things made a lot of sense at the moment. Still, it was only a passing nagging thought at the end of a long list of other problems.

The girl, Xander could see that she was about his age, had white hair done up in with two intricate braids that formed loops on the side of her face while the rest of it flowed freely and billowed in a breeze that only she seemed to feel or be effected by. Her skin wasn't just pale, but glowed in a soft, soothing light that seemed to be due to the moonlight bouncing off of it. No, not bouncing off of it. The moonlight was coming _from _her. She wore a flowing robe that flared out from her arms of dark blue and bright white.

To say the least, Xander was stunned. She was pretty, that was obvious. But like Aang, there was power in her. No, that wasn't right. She _was_ power. He knew it on an instinctual level the same way he knew how to use his eyes to see. What made the whole thing even more incredible, more mind blowing to him personally, was that she was looking at him with sympathy. A beautiful, powerful, girl seemed to care about him. It showed in her eyes and in her face as she looked at him, looked _in_ him.

Something started to stir within Xander, something deep that he had long thought buried. Whatever the girl was doing broke something inside of him, something that he had locked away long ago. All of the pain he had suffered over the early years of his life at the hands of his father, the pain of being forgotten and shunned by his mother, to be replaced by her with alcohol that let her ignore the violence that went on around her. The torment and ridicule he endured by his peers just for being who he was and, later, taking as much of it off of Willow as he could, taking as much of it as he could to spare her.

There was the weakness of not being good enough for Buffy, not just romantically but as a friend and ally. He didn't have the physical strength to stand beside her and recently she had realized that and tried to push him away. He was weak but he didn't let it show, he used that weakness to be beaten by the various denizens of hell so that way it was one less hit or pain that she would have to put up with.

All of this, all the pain, suffering and feelings of inadequacy that he had fought so hard to lock away came pouring out of him just because this girl was looking at him. It was too much for him. Everything that was happening, everything that had ever happened to him, it all broke down inside of him. Falling to his knees, Xander wept. The only thing that kept him from falling over was that the girl, amazingly, was there with him. Holding him, gently stroking his hair and making soothing noises. The tears were a release of all the pain that he had felt in his life. All of the confusion, the hardships, and the quiet dark burdens that he shared with no one. In her arms, though, he was safe and that's all that mattered to him at the moment.

Xander didn't know how long he stayed like that. A few minutes, a few seconds, he couldn't tell. The girl seemed to sense his sudden alertness and gently pushed him back so they were now looking into each other's faces. Apparently, she had been crying too. Silver tear marks trailed her pale face.

"Alexander," she said softly. "I'm truly am sorry for everything that has happened to you. It's unfair that you should have to shoulder this burden, but we can't change that. If Aang is to blame then I am even more than him. But you must listen. The world, your world, depends on it."

Something in her voice made him listen. It wasn't magic. There wasn't any mind control factor to it. There was simply truth in her voice that couldn't be denied. Also, when a pretty girl asks you to do something, it's hard to say no.

Nodding his head, Xander wiped his eyes dry as she stood up, extending a hand to help him up. She was happy to see that he accepted it without any hesitation, a gesture that spoke more than words could.

Turning, Xander found Aang facing the opposite direction, giving them as much privacy as the kid could without actually leaving. Noticing that they had finished, Aang faced them and bowed once again, this time to the girl.

"Yue," Aang said respectfully.

"Avatar Aang," Yue replied. "It's unfortunate that we meet only under these circumstances."

Xander was still sniffling slightly but he felt better, lighter, then he had before. Taking a steadying breath, Xander looked Aang in the eyes. "Alright, so what's going on here?"

Aang looked to Yue questioningly. When the girl nodded, Aang began to speak. "It's kind of complicated. Like I said, I don't even know how it happened. No one seems to really know. Somehow, my spirit entered your body about a month ago."

"What are you talking about? I got possessed over a year ago, not a month ago."

"Really? About a month passed for me since that happened for me." Again, Aang looked over at Yue.

"La and myself have talked about this in great length," Yue said. "Time is trickier than any bending, almost any subject there is. We can only begin to guess at why things progresses differently in one area and differently in another."

"So, time moves differently for us? Alright then," Xander said nodding his head. "Makes as much sense as anything else," he said dryly.

"It's not important," Aang stressed. "When it happened, I was so confused. It happened at such a powerful moment for me...I was lost. I didn't know what was happening or where I was. I...I ran. When I got somewhere quiet, where I could think again, I meditated and entered the spirit world to look for an answer. Yue found me and together we were able to piece some of it together."

Yue spoke up. "You have to understand, Xander. Aang is a very powerful being. He's the bridge between our worlds, the Avatar. Removing his spirit and transporting it would take either a very powerful spirit or a past life of his.

"Before we knew it, we felt his spirit begin to leave and be pulled back to his own body. But something was wrong. Aang said that it felt as if a part of him was being left behind, a part of the Avatar."

"I've never felt anything like that before. Someone or something was trying to keep a part of the Avatar and use it. I knew that it wasn't you doing it. I saw inside of you, Xander. I knew that you wouldn't do something like that, couldn't do it, but _someone_ was. You have to understand, we couldn't let them do that. We had to do something to stop them."

Xander listened to the exchange intently, trying to make sense of it all. So far, nothing seemed to. It sounded as if they were having a conversation and they expected him to know things that he didn't. If he wasn't still reeling from the emotional dam breaking he went through before he probably would have interrupted. Whatever it was they were talking about though seemed to be very important and this Aang kid was at the center of it all. Something about being an Avatar, whatever that is, meant he was special somehow. The girl, Yue, was special too. He didn't need them to tell him that, though. Appearing in moonlight after it had just been day was a good sign of that.

Both of them, Aang especially, looked worried as well as sad. They had said that they had come to some kind of decision but hadn't told him what it was they had decided. Did they figure out that killing him was the safest bet of keeping whatever the Avatar thing was away from him? Maybe he was dead, that might begin to make some sense of the world right now.

"OK," Xander said holding up his hand. "I hate to interrupt, really, I do. But...what in the hell are you two going on about? No of this makes any sense. The only way I could understand less is if you started speaking in Chinese or something."

"Xander, that's what I'm trying to say. You wouldn't understand any of this, you couldn't. That's what we did. Yue took away your memory of that night and locked away the power of the Avatar," Aang said getting agitated with every word.

"I didn't mean it to hurt you, Xander," Yue said softly. "I only meant to protect both your world and yourself. But I should have known that even my power wouldn't be enough to contain that of the Avatar."

"You...you wiped my memory?" Xander cried out.

"Yes, I did. I did what I thought was best to keep the balance. I've had only limited contact with the people from your world and even I can tell that they wouldn't be able to handle the power and responsibility that comes with being the Avatar."

"What's the Avatar? Why the hell is he so important?" Xander countered, his anger and frustration getting the better of him. Who were these people to decided that they could take away his memories? Even though they were just a few hours they were still his. They could have let him keep them and then locked away whatever the Avatar thing was.

"That's what you're here to find out," Aang said. The boy took a deep breath, and moved forward with more grace and speed than Xander had seen anybody move.

Aang struck out with both hands at once giving Xander no time to defend himself. One of his hands went for the temple, the other for his chest. Instead of striking him, Aang simply placed his open palms on the areas and pressed firmly. At first, nothing happened and Xander was starting to feel really uncomfortable. Before he was able to move, though, he felt it.

It started as a tingle in his chest and head, the exact spots that Aang was touching. It felt as if something inside of his very being had fallen asleep and was just now waking up. The sensation started to spread out to the rest of his body reaching his fingers and toes. It felt as if even the very tips of his hairs all over his body were experiencing it as well. It wasn't pleasant but it wasn't bad either. Xander had felt worse in his time, much worse. It began to intensify though and started to hurt enough so that Xander wished that he could move just so he could grit his teeth against the pain. Whatever was going on, however, had him frozen in place, unable to move even a muscle.

Suddenly, the pain and discomfort vanished and a feeling of warmth began to creep into him. It started in the reverse direction of the previous feeling, instead of radiating out of him in was entering from outside and heading into his chest and head. With the warmth came a pressure that started to build within Xander at several different points on his body. The base of his spine, his groin, stomach and chest all developed an unbelievable amount of pressure within them, moving upwards. The feeling progressed up to his throat making Xander feel like he might suffocate despite having no problem breathing. His forehead felt as if it would explode at any moment yet still it continued. Finally, the pressure went even further till it reached the crown of his head and stayed there making his whole body ache without any release.

It felt as if something was trying to claw its way out of his body. No, that wasn't the feeling, Xander determined through the intense pressure. It didn't want to break out of him so much as break open within him. When he came to this realization, he relaxed somewhat unconsciously and that ended it. The pressure swelled to a crescendo before flowing out of the seven points on his body spreading relief throughout his body.

If Xander had more time to think about it, he probably would have been able to come up with a better description of what happened next. There were people that could have done so with eloquence and style befitting the experience but Xander knew he wasn't one of them. Still, he thought he would be able to think of something that could do it justice. As it was, the only thought that went through his mind at the moment was, _'Gah!'_

It would be wrong to say that he was inundated with memories of Aang's life. Xander didn't experience any of it. He couldn't tell what the boy had been thinking at any one time in his life. There wasn't any kind of mental connection linking both of their brains or anything like. Still, Xander _knew_ what had happened in his life. He knew what Aang had done and been through and what he was. He understood who he, _himself,_ was, as well. There was more than just information, more than just power. It was knowledge, sure, but so much more than that.

Instantly, at least in real time, it ended and Xander found himself laying on his back panting. Aang was on his knees, breathing heavily, but in better shape than Xander.

"Sorry about that," Aang said after a moment while calming his breathing. "I didn't expect it to be quite that intense."

"Buh," was all Xander was able to reply. When Aang offered him his hand, he took it without hesitation. "I think it would have been easier if I was crazy."

"Yea, I thought something like that at first too. It's a lot to take in, no matter how old you are," Aang said. Then, in a way that only he could, Aang grinned hugely. It was so infectious that Xander couldn't help but smirk as well.

"There isn't much time," Yue said. "Time may be slower here but you must return."

"Crap!" Xander exclaimed. "The demons, Ethan! What do I do about them? I don't know what to do with...with _this_," Xander said looking lost.

"Relax," Aang told him placing a hand on his shoulder. "I can help."

Looking skeptical, Xander still nodded his head. He trusted Aang. He had every reason in the world to do so, but he was still frightened slightly.

"Good bye, Avatar Aang ," Yue bowed her head slightly before turning to Xander. "And to you, Avatar Alexander, good luck. I only wish I could do more." Before Xander could say anything, Yue lowered her head and gave him a kiss on the head, filling him with a cool sensation, before fading away in a burst of moon light. Before Xander got say anything, he too faded away from the Spirit World.

BREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAK

Slashing back and forth with the sword, Buffy was barely managing to keep the demon from taking her to the ground. Its skin was tough and dense making it nearly impossible to do anything but give the demon a shallow cut. She was almost certain that she'd be able to cut further but like most things she encountered, the creature wasn't being kind enough to stand still and let her try. Stabbing it seemed to be a good way to go since every time she tried, it would jump back keeping just out of reach.

She could see the fights going on around her but was powerless to do anything about it. They hadn't been ready for this. They didn't think that Ethan would act like this, work with demons. Vampires, yes, but not these things, Giles had been so sure of it. They were tough, well trained and just fighting one of them was a challenge that Buffy was hard pressed to meet. Angel and Giles were barely holding their own and without Oz in werewolf mode she doubted that Willow would be alive right now. Hell, she probably wouldn't last if two of them decided to rush her all at once so how well did Willow fair?

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Xander sail through the air and tumble on the floor. She wanted to get to him, make sure he was OK, but there wasn't any way she could make it past her opponent to do it. Gritting her teeth, she redoubled her efforts, swinging the sword in hard, wild arcs that helped put some breathing room between her and the demon. There wasn't enough of an opening to lunge, but with a few feints she had the demon backing up hastily. Before she could press the advantage, a yelp that couldn't be mistaken for anything other than pain caught her attention followed by a scream from Willow.

Forgetting the problem in front of her, Buffy glanced over to the direction the sound came from. Willow was running out into the open and Buffy saw why. Oz, who seemed to be able to fight off the half goat demon all on his own, had ultimately lost his fight. He was laying limp on the floor, clearly injured if not dead. Ignoring her own safety, Willow was trying to make her way to him but was stopped by the same creature that had wounded her boyfriend, grabbing her by the neck. It was easy to see the anguish and fear on Willow's face. Even though she fought for all she was worth, there was no way she was going to be breaking free of the demons hold on her.

The second that Buffy spent taking all of that in, the demon she had been fighting got inside her defense, knocked her sword away, and followed it up with a vicious backhand. Even tense with the fight, she had been too distracted in the one moment to keep her defense up. The blow knocked her to her knees and making her see stars. Whatever these things were, it felt like she ran face first into a brick wall with that one hit.

Attempting to get the thing away, Buffy kicked out and pushed off the demons stomach. That had been the plan anyway. Instead, the thing didn't budge an inch, grabbed her by the ankle and growled at her. Realizing her mistake too late, she could only prepare herself for the inevitable strike to come. Only it never did. Something stopped it from following up on the countless of attacks it could come after her while in this position.

The wind picked up suddenly and fierce. Shielding her eyes from the dust being kicked up Buffy focused on the center of where the wind was coming from and would have opened her mouth in shock if the raging wind didn't keep it closed. Xander was floating a good six inches off the ground in what she could only describe as a sphere of air. The only reason she could even make it out was because of all the dust that was circling it. His eyes were open but instead of his brown eyes his were glowing with a bright white light that cast his face in harsh and frightening relief. Everyone in the desert seemed to be focusing on Xander as he floated there.

With a roaring gust of air, the dust completely obscured Xander from view for a moment and when it cleared slightly he was no longer there. In his place was a young, bald, boy dressed in what looked to be some sort of monk garb. Despite his age and appearance, he looked more frightening than Xander had. His eyes also glowed as well as arrows that ran down his arms and on his head. The wind never stopped ragging and the boy never touched the ground as he surveyed the area.

Faster than Buffy could believe, the boy circled his one arm and thrust it toward the demon holding Willow. A blast of air flowed past the boy's hand and slammed into the creatures head sending it reeling backwards and dropping Willow, who promptly curled into the fetal position, on the ground. Turning smoothly, the monk then swept both arms over his head, directed his palms at the demon holding Buffy, and continued the movement till he was facing the opposite direction. A current of air that Buffy wouldn't have believed possible dragged the demon away from her and sent it flying well past Ethan's car.

The young monk spun around again, thrust out an arm, and pointed his fingers out. Swiftly, he started moving his whole arm in a tight circle causing all of the air that was still continuing to roar around them, to be directed from his rotating shoulder and out through his fingers. If Buffy wasn't witnessing it, she probably wouldn't have believed it...at least not without a lot of convincing. The kid, just by moving his arm, had created a freaking tornado!

The twister formed in the space of two seconds and had already began to suck dust, dirt and rocks into it with such force that when a few of them spun out of it, the struck the ground and created large holes. More than a few buzzed past Buffy's ears and one even went across her face, cutting her above her left eye and caused her to see white for a second.

The wind was too much and the dust was making everything hard to see, Buffy flattened herself on the ground and closed her eyes tightly. The noise that the tornado created was deafening and she swore that her ears were going to start bleeding any minute. Fortunately, the wind started to die down to the point that she could look up again. The tornado was gone but there was enough wind that dust continued to fly around, though at this point it seemed to be content with circling the kid and not moving and flesh flaying speed. None of the demons were around and Ethan was hiding under his car from what she could see and clearly not getting up anytime soon.

For a second time the air and dust encased the boy with blinding speed. The dust fell to the ground and the wind settled again to what it had been before anything had started. The boy was gone and in his place, Xander was on the ground, panting. Even though he looked worn out and tired, he was still the first on to his feet and making his way over to Willow who was hovering over Oz's still form. Buffy jumped up second and stood next to Xander, looking down at their friends.

Oz was no longer in his werewolf form but Buffy had no idea if that meant that he was dead or if he the moon had finally set fully. Willow seemed near catatonic as she kneeled over her boyfriend. The scene was heartbreaking but Buffy knew that they couldn't hesitate for an instant if there was going to be any chance of saving Oz.

"Dear, God..." Giles spoke softly as he and Angel came to check on the young man.

"Giles, we need to get him to a hospital, fast." Buffy's voice was tight as she forced herself not to break down. It was a near thing but she managed to pull herself together when she felt Angel put a hand on her shoulder.

"He's alive, barely," Angel whispered to her. "I can hear his heart but it's faded, slowing down. He needs to be seen."

Giles bent down, careful not to disturb Oz too much as he inspected him. "Damn. I can't tell if the neck's...I can't tell if it'll be worse to move him or not."

"Get a blanket," Xander said. "Wrap him in a blanket. Get something to support his neck."

Blinking, Giles took a moment before nodding and hurrying off to the car, but Buffy shared his shock. It wasn't that the advice wasn't solid and the best thing they could do at the moment but the fact that Xander was the one who was being calm and collective. Not to mention what had happened less than a few minutes ago, it was enough to rattle anyone's nerves but Xander was simply making a list of what had to be done instead of freaking out.

"The sun's going to be up in a shortly. Angel, do you have another blanket in the car?" Xander asked the vampire.

Opening his mouth slightly, this time it was Angel who seemed surprised. Shaking it off, he said, "I should have a spare in the trunk. It'll be a tight fit but the important thing is getting Oz to the hospital. He'll need to be laid out in the back for the ride."

Shaking his head, Xander replied, "Don't worry about that, I'll get Oz to the hospital."

"Wait. You'll what?" Buffy asked in disbelief. Maybe the whole tornado wind thing had given Xander a concussion.

"No time to argue about it Buffy," Xander said rolling his shoulders as Giles came back and carefully wrapped Oz in a blanket. "Meet me at the hospital after you guys get back into town and drop Angel off."

"Xander, you're not making any sense. What do you mean you'll get Oz to the hospital?" Buffy looked at Xander for some kind of response but instead she saw him look down at Willow. She still hadn't moved from her spot watching over Oz even as Giles did his best to wrap a towel around his neck to keep his head from moving too much.

Looking up, Xander met Buffy's eyes with equal amount of sadness and sympathy. She didn't know what he was planning on doing but he seemed resolute in whatever it was. Without another word, he bent down, gently picked up Oz's still form and settled his body in his arms. At first, Buffy thought he was simply going to try walking Oz back to Sunnydale. It certainly looked that way when he started towards town, quickening his pace with every step. Buffy was about to stop him when there was a sudden whoosh of air and a large amount of dust kicked up where Xander had been walking with a trail of it heading into town.

The only thing Buffy could do was blink at the slowly settling dust in front of her. She probably would have stayed that way till Giles put a hand on her, urging her towards the car. As they drove away, Angel hiding under the blanket in the backseat next to her, with Willow, still dazed and silent up front, Buffy could only wonder what had happened to Xander and what it meant. It never even crossed her mind that they had left Ethan out there, still hiding under his car.

BREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAK

Sleep came easy to Xander as he sat in the hard plastic chair in the waiting room of Sunnydale General. The ER doctors had taken Oz from him the moment they had arrived and promised to let him know as soon as they had any news. They gave him forms, which he didn't bother filling out and had instead sat down wearily. It hadn't taken long before his eyes closed and he drifted off. The past twenty-four hours had been more than enough to wipe him out. What surprised him was how easily he fell asleep and that he didn't get assaulted with nightmares as he slept. For the first time in a long time, he was resting. Naturally, this couldn't last.

Waking up to someone gently shaking his shoulder, Xander's sleepy eyes gave him a vision of a blurry Giles kneeling way to close for his comfort. Jumping back in the chair caused him to knock it over and he probably would have went with it had Giles not grabbed his arm and held him up.

"Sorry about that," the older man said quietly. "I hadn't meant to startle you."

Shaking his head, Xander regained his balance. "No, no. It's alright. Just didn't expect it was all."

Righting the chair, Giles motioned for Xander to sit down and took the seat next to him. Once they were settled, Giles handed him a cup of coffee and received a large smile for it. "You would think that we would be more used to these damn things given how much time we spend here," Giles said as he tried to find a comfortable spot on the plastic seat.

"Yea, or at least get one of those little frequent customer cards. 'One free trip to the ER with every ten visits.' Though I think that the hospital would probably go under given the rate that this town uses it." Xander's smile quickly sobered as he looked around. Xander and Giles weren't the only ones waiting to either be seen or hear about loved ones. At least ten other people sat around them, two of them holding bloodied clothes to their necks and looking paler than was healthy. A clear testament that no matter how many things Buffy and the rest of them fought and beat back, there were always more out there and that meant more victims.

"Quite right," Giles said heavily.

Both men stayed quiet for a moment. Xander knew that Giles was giving him a moment to get the sleep out of his brain and get his thoughts together, something that he was grateful for. If it had been Buffy had woke him up then he would have been hit with a barrage of questions before he even knew where he was and what was going on.

Right, best to get down to business first.

"I haven't heard anything from the doctors yet but it's only been," Xander glanced at the clock on the wall and was shocked. "_FIVE HOURS?_"

"Yes, well, the first time we tried to wake you, you didn't move an inch. We thought it best to wait till we knew something." Giles looked off in the distance for a moment. "They took Oz up to surgery by the time we got here which was...almost three and a half hours ago. We haven't been able to reach his parents. Willow said that she doesn't think that they stay in town much. Luckily the surgeon was willing to talk to me when he came down earlier."

Xander held his breath waiting for the news. Apparently, Giles wasn't too anxious to tell him how Oz was doing. The older man took several breathes before his face went neutral, almost as if he didn't trust himself to show any emotion.

"There was massive internal bleeding by the time he was brought in. The doctors repaired what they could when he was first brought in but the extent of the injuries needed more operations. There were some bruising to his liver and kidneys. But the worst...the worst was his neck.

"There was some swelling to the spine but they won't know until he's awake how bad it is, which, unfortunately, may not be for some time."

Taking it all in, Xander could hardly believe it. They had all ended up in the hospital a few times over the years for various injuries but nothing like this. The worst had been Willow last year when she had been in a coma but even so, this was...different. It was too much, too real in a way. None of them had ever been put through any injury that had required surgery to fix. Hell, they didn't even know if Oz would walk again. What if he was paralyzed for life?

Images from Aang's life flashed across his mind. The war had taken many lives, destroyed people body and soul. Aang had seen people hurt just like Oz had been, worse in fact. But that had been war. This was...different, wasn't it?

"What about Willow? Buffy?" Xander asked.

"Willow and Buffy are both fine. Buffy dragged Willow downstairs to the cafeteria to get some food in her. To be honest, I'm more concerned with you, Xander. I saw how badly that Hessing demon was beating you yet you don't have a mark on you. I don't suppose you have an explanation for what happened back there, do you?"

He knew that the question was going to be asked sooner rather than later but still he wasn't ready for it. How was he even going to begin explaining to Giles, to any of them, about Aang and an alternate dimension where all of this would make perfect sense? They had seen a display of Airbending already so there was at least a chance that they wouldn't take too much convincing. Still, would they get it? Could they understand?

"What's a Hessing demon?" Xander asked stalling for no reason other than not wanting to talk.

"The demons that Ethan foolishly brought with him and don't stall. Xander, what happened? Who was that young man that appeared?"

Damn it. He should have known that Giles wouldn't let him put it off. Best to just jump into it now anyway. If he could get Giles on his side, maybe it wouldn't be too hard to get Buffy to listen to him.

"Remember Halloween?" Xander asked, continuing after he saw Giles nod. "Well, there's been some...consequences of from it. I didn't mention them to anyone because it wasn't that big of a deal, just some bad dreams, ya know? But they've been getting worse. It's gotten to the point where I hardly sleep anymore because of them, Giles. But I know what they've meant, what they've been trying to tell me."

"You're saying that you've been having...prophetic dreams? That they're somehow tied in with what happened tonight?" Giles asked. He didn't sound like he was ready to start yelling at Xander for making things up. Xander took that as a good sign.

"No, not really. More like it was a part of me that was trying to let me in on a secret. Maybe it had something to do with the future, I don't know. But, the dreams aren't really the important part." Xander decided that if he just didn't say it he was going to run around in circles and make absolutely no sense. Taking a deep breath, he said, "I was taken over by the current incarnation of the Avatar and him and the spirit of the moon locked away my memories of it and the fact that I'm part of the Avatar cycle."

Blinking once and looking completely lost, Giles opened his mouth and tried to speak. Xander almost laughed but kept himself in check. It seemed like the Watcher was having a hard time lately with keeping himself composed and speaking. Saving him the trouble, Xander started before he was able to string even two words together.

"Trust me. I thought that I had been hit in the head a few too many times when I was told about it too. But, Giles, trust me, this is real. Somehow, some way, I turned into Aang that Halloween. I don't know how since I dressed up as a wizard but that's what happened. That's who you guy's saw. He helped me out with the demons." An image of Yue kissing his head flashed across his mind. "And Yue…she must have healed me somehow. I mean, I guess being the Moon Spirit has its benefits."

"The Moon Spirit healed your injuries?"

"I'm telling you, Giles. It's the truth."

"Do you...do you have any kind of proof?"

Casting a look around to see if anyone was watching, Xander was glad that everyone was too wrapped up in their own problems to pay him any attention. Taking a few coins out of his pocket and placing them in the palm of his hand, he gave it a gentle swirl Xander produced a miniature cyclone that spun the coins a few inches above his hand. Once Giles got a good look, Xander put his hand into a fist, ending the mini-tornado and catching the coins.

"Dear lord," Giles whispered. "How did you do that?"

"Um, Airbending," Xander replied sheepishly. "It's part of what makes the Avatar who he is."

"This, uh, Avatar can control air? Just like that? No incantation or spell?"

Shaking his head, Xander said, "Not just air, all the elements. Water, earth and fire too. It's not magic, Giles, but it's hard to just...make it happen. There's movements involved, technique. But the better you get at it, the less the movements are needed. It's like martial arts, actually."

"Are you telling me that you can control all of the elements, command them at will?" For whatever reason, Giles voice had a hard edge to it. There was a question within the question, Xander sensed.

"Yes. I haven't tried anything else yet. Things have been a bit hectic and now isn't the time. But you have to understand, the Avatar isn't just some powerful being. It's more than that. He's a balancing force, a peace keeper."

"Who's peace?" Giles asked, his tone not changing.

"The world's," Xander said catching his eyes. The two men stayed like that for a moment. Xander felt Giles measuring him, weighing what he said in his mind. Xander just made sure that he didn't back down, didn't look away. If he did he felt that he would be confirming something that Giles was wondering and that it wouldn't end well. Finally, Giles nodded his head and the tension drifted away.

Rubbing his eyes, Giles shook his head. "I almost wish that I was mad."

"You and me both," Xander snorted.

"I'm not saying I believe you, not entirely. I'd like to do more research on the subject but...it's clear that there's more going on. Things have obviously changed. I would wait until we hear any word on Oz before going to Buffy and Willow with this. I'll let them know that I spoke with you and that everything is OK for the time being. But you have to understand, just because Ethan was stopped this time, doesn't mean that he'll stop completely. It's a good bet that he knew about whatever is going on with you and that's why he sought you out. He'll come for you again and frankly, I don't know what his next step might be."

Xander understood what a relentless pursuer was capable of. Suppressing a shudder, he recalled the image of Azula hunting Aang and his friends. Nothing stopped her. Nothing had deterred her from her goal. The most frightening thing about it was that she had almost succeeded. Hell, she _did_ succeed. If it hadn't been for the intervention of Katara and a lot of luck, Aang would have been dead. He doubted that Ethan was anywhere as bad as Azula. For one thing, he wasn't as smart or as cunning. Azula wouldn't have messed up as badly as Ethan had. When Azula lost, generally it was due to outside forces. Ethan had been sloppy by comparison.

Turning fully to Giles, Xander started to talk but stopped when he saw a glint of something sticking out of the older man's sleeve. Squinting, he nearly fell out of his chair again when he realized what it was. "What the hell? Is that a knife?" Xander sputtered in shock.

Quickly putting his hand in his pocket, Giles tried to deny the allegation, badly. "What? No, not at all. Why would you think that?"

"Were...were you going to stab me?" Xander nearly shouted.

"Calm down," Giles said looking around nervously. "I wasn't going to stab you...not if it wasn't absolutely necessary."

"Oh, well, that makes it OK, doesn't it?"

"Xander, do you have any idea what it looked like from our perspective? Out of nowhere you had your body taken over and what that...boy did, the things he was able to do, they were some of the most destructive and amazing things I have ever seen. Air shouldn't be able to pick up four demons as heavy as them and toss them about as if it was nothing. I have seen some fairly frightening things in my time, Xander, but what I saw earlier this morning...I had to be certain that you were still you. That you weren't..."

"A threat?" Xander provided. There wasn't any hostility in his voice anymore. He should have expected them to think something like this, but he hadn't. Blame it on too much going on at once, but Xander simply was too concerned with getting his friends to believe him and hadn't really thought about what they might do if they did. "This amount of power can be dangerous, I know. Through Aang I've seen the amount of damage that people that can bend even a single element can do let alone an Avatar. What you have to understand is that the Avatar isn't a force for evil, it's a force for good, for balance."

"So you say. But I've heard that line before from people who only sought to help the world. People don't start out as evil, Xander. Well, not usually," Giles added as an afterthought.

"Do you really think that I could be evil, Giles? I have a D average and get confused when people start spelling things. Evil genius I'm not."

Xander's attempt at levity failed. Giles suddenly became much more attentive and sat up a little straighter. Following his eyes, Xander also started paying attention to what was going on

around him. Nurses and orderlies were hustling about carrying various packages of medical supplies. Everyone seemed tense and a few people shouted orders to people, mostly to set rooms or get supplies ready.

In the distance, Xander could just start to make out the sounds of sirens getting closer. "Accident?" he asked out loud.

"No, there's far too much going on for a simple accident," Giles said standing up.

"Vampires?" Xander asked quietly.

"Possible, but the sun's up. It has been for the hours."

Giles moved closer to the television that was on. Changing the channel from some infomercial to the local news, the screen flared with a picture of City Hall, or at least what was left of it. The building was in ruins, most of it collapsed in on itself and on fire. Even the rubble was burning. If anyone had been in there, no one would have survived it.

Xander looked at the screen and frowned as he read the ticker at the bottom, saying how an early morning gas explosion was the cause. He had seen some fairly impressive displays of pyrotechnics through Aang and if City Hall had truly exploded this would be a new one to him. Buildings go outwards with an explosion, not inward.

The television switched from the onsite camera and back to the studio. The anchorman looked slightly nervous and pale as the camera focused on him.

"Again, we interrupt this morning's programming with shocking footage from the terrible scene at City Hall. While the offices weren't fully staffed at the time, there are reports of several injured. We have just received word that there has been at least one fatality. Mayor Richard Wilkins the Third was in his office at the time of the incident and responders on scene have confirmed that his body was found at the scene. Once again, the Mayor of Sunnydale, dead this morning."

Tuning out the rest of what the newscaster was saying, Xander turned to find Giles looking at him. They both knew that things had changed now. Wordlessly, both of them left to go find Buffy and Willow. They didn't know what this meant, but it couldn't be good.


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: **_OK, thanks again for the reviews. It's always nice to get feedback and let's face it, it does make you work a bit faster. Also, I'm currently looking for a beta so if there's any mistakes I missed, just let me know and sorry about that. Or, if you'd like to offer up your beta services, I'd appreciate it. So, without further ado, let's get this show on the road.

Chapter 3

Sunlight streamed in from the window. Xander watched as dust floated through the early morning rays and inhaled deeply, feeling the warmth from the sun. The past week had been intense and for the moment he simply wanted to lay there and relax. The sun had only just began to rise but he had left the blinds open just for this moment. Mornings had become his favorite time of day over the week and he wanted to experience every second of it. It's when he was his most free. Free from the constraints of school. Free from patrols with Buffy and Willow, though to be fair that was mostly a problem when vampires and demons attacked. Most importantly though, he was free from hiding what he was.

Giles had persuaded him to not tell Buffy and Willow about what had happened to him, not fully anyway. Giles was afraid of how Buffy might react as well as it being a distraction with everything else going on. Once they were certain that Xander wasn't in any danger, and not a danger to others, he and Giles would tell both of them the full truth. They told the girls that Xander didn't remember anything from that morning and that Giles was working out a way to get to the bottom of it. It wasn't that Xander didn't agree with the older man's reasoning, he just didn't like lying to them or hiding what he was.

If he was honest, Xander figured that the real reason was that Giles still didn't trust or understand what had happened to him. The Watcher had sat down and talked to him several times over the week about everything while taking notes the whole time. Giles never came out and said that he didn't believe him, but he was probably researching on all of it trying to see if there was something that could explain it in terms that he would believe. It's not that he thought Xander was lying, just not understanding what was really happening. To be fair, the other set of "memories" that Xander suddenly had would point to some kind of mind magic but they matched up perfectly with what he could do now.

Though, that in itself was also a problem. Airbending was coming easy to him, it felt natural. He had to train his body to do the moves but that was coming along nicely, far faster than it should naturally in fact. No, that wasn't the issue he was having. The problem was the other bending arts. He tried all of them without any luck. Water. Earth. Fire. None of them worked. Even the simplest movements failed to do anything other than give him practice with the forms. It was frustrating to say the least but he didn't have time to worry about it, not now. Besides, for the meantime he could always refine his Airbending which, while strong and getting stronger each day, was rustier than was safe. The first time he had let loose an air blast it was more powerful and wider than he had anticipated. The tree trunk he had been aiming for had been split in half, which was fine, but the ground around it had also been torn up a good foot or so deep.

That was the reason he loved mornings though, it was his time to train and let loose a bit. What non-benders didn't understand was how important it was for a bender to practice their art. It was a part of them, it made them whole. Without it, they felt incomplete. It had been what Xander had been feeling, among other things, since Halloween the year before. Now that he had access to it, now that he felt complete, he found it increasingly difficult hide it. It was no wonder why benders used their abilities in everyday life.

Glancing at the alarm clock, Xander grinned and turned it off before it was set to ring. Now that he wasn't being plagued by nightmares he had been sleeping better and was happier and more energetic because of it. Getting to his feet, he stretched a bit and made use of the bathroom before throwing on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, grabbed the staff that he now kept by his bed and left his house as quietly as he could.

After a few quick warm ups, Xander started jogging with his destination firmly in mind. There was a park near one of the cemeteries that he had been using for practice. In it was a small patch of land that was well hidden by a grouping of trees that offered him privacy and at this time in the morning there was hardly anyone around anyway. When he ever got around to getting his Water, Earth and Firbending down, he would have to find a much more open and private area to practice in. No sense in destroying the town while he got those bending disciplines under control.

Increasing his pace, Xander tightened his grip on his staff and started exhaling slowly. Running didn't wind him like it used to. Proper breathing was important but Airbender's were natural runners. Speed and agility were part of their art. Even without bending they could outmaneuver enemies without much trouble. Wanting to be there earlier than a normal runner, though, Xander took a deep breath and when he exhaled it was slow and deliberate. The air around him suddenly offered him almost no resistance. In fact, instead of hindering him, the air moved around him in such a way that it increased his speed to that of a strong gust of wind. Much faster than anyone human and most demons could go, but still slower than was his full potential, Xander ran with a grin on his face. He couldn't begin to explain how it felt to bend but it was exhilarating.

As he neared the park he saw a car parked by its edge and mentally cursed. He had been hoping to get here before anyone else but apparently that wasn't going to be a case. Stopping on a dime in front of the car, Xander nearly fell and only stopped himself from doing so by slamming both hands on the hood, the wind blowing ahead of him.

The car door opened, and Giles stepped out. "Dear lord, Xander, are you alright?"

"Yea, not a problem," Xander said waving him off. "Just getting used to stopping. I think I need to put more air in front of me and I'll be fine."

"Do you have any idea how fast you were going?"

"Um...not really, no."

"Nearly eighty kilometers an hour!" Seeing the blank look on Xander's face, he sighed. "Fifty miles an hour."

"Oh. How am I supposed to know your strange English measurements?" Xander said wryly.

"God forbid you Americans join the rest of the world," Giles muttered.

Happy that he was able to poke a little fun at the Englishman, Xander righted himself and grinned. "You sure you really want to do this? I'm fine with you watching me but I don't know exactly what you're expecting. You weren't exactly clear on what your plan was."

Reaching into the back seat of the car, Giles removed a duffle bag and slung it over his shoulder, closing the door. "I expect that I'll probably observe you as you...bend? Is that the proper term? I don't have any way to really gauge what to do in terms of helping you train till I have an idea what it is we're dealing with. But I would like to take some measurements, record your speed and, um, accuracy."

"Makes sense," Xander said. "You'd be amazed at what I've been able to do with just a week of training myself. But even with the knowledge of the Avatar I still need someone that can help me with refining it. You're the only one who has any experience with training people. Not to mention you're the only person who knows about this who isn't out to get me."

A strained smile appeared on Giles face. Shifting the bag, he nodded and said, "Yes, well, no sense in wasting any more time. Shall we get started?"

Nodding his head, Xander led the way through the park. He was kind of happy that Giles had wanted to lend a hand in his training and had meant every word he had said. There was only so much he could do on his own and the sooner he had someone helping him refine his movements, the better. Giles may not be a master bender, or a bender at all, but he knew fighting and he knew how to correct things that he knew were wrong. Even without knowing anything about bending, the movements were based in martial arts which Giles trained Buffy in. Plus, the man was smart and could see things that Xander would miss no matter how many times or ways he'd look at a situation.

There was an ulterior motive to having Giles assist him, though. For one, having him have a hand in his training might put the Watcher more at ease with what Xander was now and with what he could do. Xander still saw him give him that look whenever they talked about him being the Avatar, the look that said that he had to be careful or else Giles was likely to do something drastic. If Giles could see that he was still himself, still Xander, then maybe he wouldn't feel the need to keep an eye on him all the time. Giles wouldn't feel that he needed to watch for some sign that he was going to go crazy and try to wipe out the town or something. Not only that, but maybe he would trust him enough to tell the girls about it. He just knew that the longer they waited the more problems they were going to have with it. After all, hadn't they learned that secretes weren't good in their group?

Pushing away those thoughts, Xander got his head together. He needed to concentrate while training. Being distracted would only cause him to be sloppy. Neither the landscape nor Giles needed him to be off his mark.

It took five minutes before Xander and Giles entered the clearing that Xander had designated as his training grounds. After giving it a once over, Giles eyes landed on the area that Xander had destroyed when he was toying with some of the more destructive forms of Airbending. Grinning sheepishly, Xander rubbed the back of his neck. "I got a little carried away the other day."

"Yes, of course."

Coughing sheepishly, Xander busied himself with some light stretching while Giles settled the duffle bag and took out a notebook and a pen. Centering himself, something that was easy to do for him now, he looked over to where Giles was standing. "I'm just going to start off with one of the forms, something to just give an idea of what I've talking about, Okay?" When Giles nodded his head, Xander added, "Um, you may want to step back a bit further."

Gripping his staff firmly, Xander took a few breaths and let his body relax. That was important, more than anything else, an Airbender had to be loose, ready to change course at a moment's notice. He waited almost a full minute while getting himself ready before he began.

It was slow at first, a few swipes of his staff to the left and right, turning his body fully with each motion, using the momentum from each movement to fuel the next. He was sure that Giles was watching carefully and he didn't want to disappoint. When he was ready, Xander exploded in a flurry of motion. His staff wiped around his body in wide arcs stopping only when Xander was ready to unleash a gust of wind in one direction or the other. None of them where tight or strong but they kicked up dirt and striped leaves from branches that were too close.

Kicking off with his back leg, Xander, leapt high into the air. Twisting his body in midair, he made it so that way when he started to fall down, he was facing the ground. With a thrust of his hand, he created a cushion of air and rolled off of it before hitting the ground. As he came up, he turned to the left of Giles, jabbed out with his staff and let loose a tight blast of air that tore a gash in the tree he had aimed for. Still pointing at the tree, Xander sprinted forward and didn't stop when he reached the trunk. Instead he bent the air behind him and continued running up the tree till he was about fifteen feet off the ground before he stopped and jumped off. Again, spinning in the air to build up enough inertia, Xander crouched into a ball as he neared the ground. When he landed, he swept his staff out around him one creating an expanding sphere of air that, among other things, knocked Giles from his feet.

"Crap," Xander muttered as he ran towards the Watcher. "Giles, are you alright? I didn't think that you would fall over so easily."

"I-I'm fine," Giles assured him though his face looked a tad pale. "I just...I wasn't expecting anything like that. I mean, I remember what I saw that morning but still..." Giles was silent for a moment before he shook his head. "That was amazing, Xander. You say that you can perform these moves at any time? No preparation needed?"

"Yeah, I mean, I need to be able to move but yeah." Xander shrugged.

Taking the offered hand, Giles got to his feet and dusted himself off. "The attacks seem mostly defensive in nature, am I correct? There are certainly destructive elements to it, but the form you started off with…it looked defensive. The movements do have a touch of some form of martial arts but I can't say what, exactly. I'm not, as I told you, an expert on the matter, but there's definitely something there. If we can determine what that something is, it would more than likely aid you in your training.

"You said that you can only control the air at the moment?"

Nodding, Xander said, "No matter what I do, I can't bend the other elements. I don't know if it's something with me or if it's something else. It doesn't matter what the reason is, I still can't do it."

"Well, let's explore that later. For the moment, I'm more concerned with this particular element," Giles said. "Even with its passive and defensive nature, there's still some application as an offensive art."

"Airbender's aren't exactly the most violent bunch. But, even so, it's easy to use it to attack if you're willing to do it, especially if you go at full strength. And for the Avatar, that goes double."

"Those air currents weren't as powerful as you can make them?" Giles asked slightly surprised.

"Giles, if I was going at full strength there wouldn't be anything left of this clearing. Hell, if I went into the Avatar State I don't think there would be anything left of this town."

Instantly, Xander regretted his words. Giles, while not exactly glaring, did become slightly more rigid and fixed him with a look.

"You know what I meant," Xander said.

"Yes, precisely," Giles said somberly. "You're saying that as you get stronger your power will become far beyond what you are now, twisting what you say is the most passive of these magic's into something both dangerous and deadly."

"What? No! I didn't say anything like that!" Xander exclaimed. "I'm just saying that this isn't as strong as an Airbender can be."

A moment passed before Giles let his shoulders slump. With a nod of his head, he signaled that he was willing to let the matter drop once more. More than likely the early morning hour was contributing to his shortness on the subject but both men knew that it was a conversation that was going to be had sooner rather than later.

"We still have a couple of hours before classes are in session, why you don't you show me a few other moves. The better I can learn your, uh, _art_, the better I'll be able to assist you." Giles picked up his notebook from where he had dropped it on the floor. "Whenever you're ready."

"Yeah, sure. No problem," Xander replied glumly before getting back into position.

BREAKBRBREAKBREAKBREAK

Sitting on a bench outside of the school, Buffy growled in frustration. Apparently, staring at the same page for the past fifteen minutes wasn't getting any of the information into her head. She had been proud of herself that she was actually using her lunch period to study but it didn't do any good if she wasn't getting anything out of it. With one finale glare at the offending textbook, Buffy slammed it shut and suppressed the urge to throw the book as far as she could.

It was weird spending her lunch period on her own but this was the third day in a row that she was doing so. It was bad enough that she was known as being a freak to the rest of the student body but at least she wasn't so noticeable when her friends were with her. On her own though, she was a glaring beacon of weirdness.

She didn't blame Willow for not being around. Oz was still in the hospital in a coma and Willow had barely left his side. She showed up to class, certainly, but one of the perks of being one of the brightest students in the school meant that most teachers gave her a pass and two had even told her not to show up till things had settled down. Buffy visited her as often as she could to make sure that she was OK but truth be told, she was starting to worry.

Xander was another story altogether, though. Ever since the incident with Ethan he had been acting...odd. He still talked like himself, did the same Xander type things but there was something not quite right with him. She brought it up to Giles but he had reassured her that Xander was just getting his head together after his experience. Both men assured her that Xander didn't remember anything from that morning but again, Buffy couldn't put her finger on why she was having an issue with it. Even when Giles said that he was working with Xander to try to help him remember, there was something that didn't sit right with her. Xander was absent from some of the afternoon classes that they shared and from all of the lunch periods but he would always be there to help after classes when it came to research and every night on patrol.

That was also something that was also keeping her mind busy and from concentrating on much of anything really. All of the mess with the Mayor, or rather, the death of him, was keeping all of them busy. For one thing, they were busy trying to figure out what had actually happened. They knew that the Mayor was up to something but they hadn't figured out exactly what he was involved in. You know, besides general evil. There wasn't a doubt in any of their minds that whatever Ethan had planned was somehow tied to City Hall being destroyed, along with the Mayor. So far, nothing had turned up on Ethan or anyone else that may have been involved. No one was talking but everyone was on edge.

One of the major downside's of the Mayor being out of the picture was that Buffy's time was spent going after all manner of demons and creatures that started running wild. Two days after the Mayor was killed, vampire and demon attacks started going up and even with Angel, Faith, and Xander helping out, all of them were wearing thin. Apparently whatever the Mayor had done, part of it involved keeping the creatures of the night in line and now that he was gone all of them were coming out of the wood work. Every night on patrol there was at least five encounters a piece and they were starting to lose ground.

Blowing a strand of hair out of her face, Buffy stood up, grabbed her bag, and started for the library. There wasn't any way that she was going to be able to study anymore or even pay attention in to the rest of her classes. Ignoring the looks that some of the more moronic students gave, Buffy made her way through the court yard and the halls of the school till she reached the library, then stopped. Giles had put out the 'Closed For Re-shelving' sign that he usually used for their training sessions. Finding it a bit odd, she crept up to the door and peered inside.

Giles and Xander were bending over the table, engrossed in something that she couldn't see. Several other books lay opened around them but Buffy couldn't make out any of them. It seemed odd that Giles would put up a sign just because of a bit of research. This was exactly what was making her suspicious, though. Giles didn't hate Xander but the two of them weren't exactly buddies by any stretch of the imagination.

Pushing the door open a bit, Buffy strained her ear to listen in.

"This is amazing," Giles said. "You had no idea?"

"How could I have known?" Xander asked. "It's not like I go around trying things like this."

"It's just...how could you not know?" Giles questioned.

"Well if you haven't noticed things have been a bit busy. Besides, like I said, when was I supposed to know I could do this?" Xander picked up a book to his left and handed it to Giles. "That's the one that I was telling you about that."

"The one with the information on Tui and La?"

"Yeah, though Tui isn't the Moon Spirit anymore, it's Yue," Xander said somewhat somberly.

What in the hell was going on? What were they talking about? Xander and Giles were clearly looking up something but it didn't seem to have anything to do with what was going on, did it? Unless there was something she was missing.

"I still can't believe that _this_ is what has you amazed. Out of everything that I can do, _this_ is what you want to spend the most time on," Xander laughed.

"Well this is hardly a small piece of the puzzle, Xander. Do you have any idea what this means?" Giles asked.

Pushing the door open wide, Buffy walked in and gave both men a fierce look, instantly halting their conversation. "No, but I'm all ears. So tell me, what does it mean?"

Xander's face would have been amusing, his mouth hanging open and eyes wide, but at the moment Buffy didn't find it very funny. Giles at least recovered from his shock at her sudden appearance but when he went to speak, Buffy cut him off.

"Really, I'd like to hear it. What does it mean? Why are you so surprised at this but not whatever the hell else you've been keeping from me?"

"Buffy," Giles said calmly. "Listen to me for a moment."

"Listen to you?" Buffy asked folding her arms. "OK, talk. Tell me that you two weren't keeping secrets from me. Tell me that you haven't been lying to me every time that I've come to you, asking if everything was all right."

"It isn't that simple," Giles said.

"It seems simple to me," Buffy said hotly. "I thought we were over keeping secrets, Giles?" Turning to Xander, she glared. "So what is it, huh? What exactly have you been lying to me about?"

"Well, lying is such a strong word," Xander said awkwardly. "I didn't exactly lie, really."

Turning up the force of her glare, Buffy stalked over to him and grabbed the book from his hand. "No? What do you call it then, hmm?"

"Buffy, that's enough," Giles snapped. "If you're going to blame anyone, then blame me. The only reason Xander's kept anything from you is because I asked him to. But that was only till we could ascertain the extent of what happened. Till _I_ could understand it."

"More happened that morning with Ethan, didn't it? You didn't forget, did you?"

Xander's shoulders slumped and he looked down at the floor. "No, I didn't."

"So you two have been keeping that little bit of information to yourselves, have you? You didn't think that _maybe_ it might be a bit important? Maybe it was something the rest of us might need to know?"

"Would it change anything if you did?" Giles asked quietly.

Before Buffy could answer, Xander looked up and said, "Yes, it would have."

"I'm not saying that you couldn't have been more of a help, but you and I both agreed that this was something that needed to be understood more. That you needed more training."

"I'm always going to need more training. You just didn't want me going off and using what I can do because you worry that I'm going to start killing people or something," Xander stated, no longer looking at Buffy.

"Of course I worry!" Giles shouted. "Do you have any idea the amount of power you wield? The kind of responsibility and self-discipline it takes to control that amount of raw power?"

Pushing past Buffy, Xander got within five feet of Giles, the two of them getting more and more worked up. "Of course I know! I know better than you do! You barely believe me when I talk to you, thinking it's some kind of mind control that Ethan pulled on me or something. I thought that you might somehow understand all of this but all you seem to be doing is waiting for me to slip up so you can put a knife in me!"

"Now you listen here," Giles seethed. "I have done no such thing. Yes, I may have paid more attention to the more dangerous elements of what you seem to be able to do but that's because I've seen firsthand what can happen with men with less power than you are capable of. The only reason I watch you as closely as I do is because I don't want to see you turn out like that, to turn into some twisted mirror of yourself. Do you think Ethan is bad? Do you think he's as bad as it gets out there?"

"Of course not! I've seen evil, Giles. I've seen whole nations wiped out because of the power one man had, of what a few people with bad idea's and the power to back it up can do." Xander looked almost near tears as he yelled at the older man. "You have no idea the things that I saw."

"And if killing you keeps you from turning into something like that I would rather it was myself that had to do it than Buffy!" Giles shouted. "What you say you saw we don't even know if it was real. How can we be sure it happened, Xander?"

Something changed in Xander. His back became rigid, his eyes flashed with a mixture of anger and pain while his face darkened. Buffy was about ready to restrain him, fearing that he might actually lunge at Giles but didn't move fast enough. Xander swung his arm over his head, around his body, and pointed his palm at Giles. Buffy stopped moving as she actually _saw_ wind erupt from Xander's hand and slam into Giles, knocking him back and over the checkout counter. As the wind died down, a few papers fluttered around in the air, but nothing else moved.

Despite all of her training and the amazing things she has seen, Buffy was too surprised to move. Whatever she had been expecting, whatever she thought they had been hiding from her, she hadn't been expecting this. Truth be told, she had just been so angry just by the fact that they _were_ hiding something from her that she hadn't had time to think about what it had been. How was she supposed to have expected _this_?

Xander dropped his hand and looked as shocked as Buffy was by what happened. She didn't think that he was surprised that he could do that so much as he _did_ do it. He took a few steps back, almost tripping over his own feet, knocking into the table and holding onto it for support. His movement shook Buffy out of her own shock and she quickly ran behind the counter to check on Giles.

The Watcher was in the process of pulling himself to his feet, wincing as he did so. Kneeling on the floor, Buffy helped him up and gave him a little support as they walked out from behind the counter. When she glanced over to the table, Xander was no longer there and the doors were swinging shut.

Once Buffy had helped Giles into a chair, she busied making him a cup of tea, neither of them saying anything. Once that was done, she put the cup down in front of him and took a seat next to him.

"It's my fault," Giles said quietly. "He's right. I made no illusions about my concerns. I pushed him too far this time, I suppose."

"It might help if I actually knew what it was that was going on here, Giles. Xander just tossed you across the room with _wind_. I'm pretty sure that he wasn't able to do that before." Buffy tried to keep her anger out of her voice but even with what she had just saw, she was still upset over the fact that they had lied to her. She would put it aside for the time being to handle the situation, but it wasn't over.

"Halloween, actually," Giles told her. "We think that it had something to do with when Ethan showed up last year at Halloween."

"You mean that whole costume switch thing? What does that have to do with it?"

"Apparently, whoever Xander had meant to go as wasn't exactly who he turned into. What he turned into was something far from what he had expected, though I have a feeling that Ethan knew exactly what he was doing and who he was going to turn Xander into. The only real question that we haven't got the slightest hint of answering is why." Taking a sip of the tea, Giles face instantly puckered.

"Too much sugar?" Buffy asked.

"No, I'm sure that there's enough sugar. I'm just afraid that some of the tea is getting in the way of it." Setting the cup down, he sighed. "As I was saying, Xander did change that night. He says that it was someone called Aang, that boy he changed into last week out in the desert actually."

"Wait, Xander said that he didn't remember what happened that night," Buffy said. If it turned out that Xander had been lying to all of them since back then she was going to find him and beat him over the head till his eyeballs spun around in his skull.

"I don't think he did, that is, if he actually did have anything to remember. If you hadn't been able to tell, I haven't exactly been very open to what Xander has been telling me. But after what we found today, I think that he may in fact be telling the truth." Giles picked up the book Buffy had dropped on the floor when she had ran over to help him. Opening it up, he handed it to her and waited.

Buffy looked at the pages, furrowed her eyebrows and started turning the pages. Finally, she looked at Giles questioningly, slightly annoyed. "What does this mean, exactly? I can't read any of it."

"I sincerely doubt that most people outside of certain historians and language experts would be able to. Yet, Xander happened to pick up one of the books like this and had no trouble with it what so ever." Giles took the book back and stared at the small, intricate calligraphy on the page. "I can make it through some of this with the aid of a translation book and enough time yet Xander could read it as if he had been raised within this language."

"OK, I'll bite. What is it?"

"Traditional Chinese, Mandarin to be exact. Only it's one of the older forms of the language."

"You're saying that Xander, our Xander, just picked this up and started reading it?"

"Not just reading it, writing it as well." Reaching over onto the table, wincing as he moved his shoulder too much, Giles picked up a sheet of paper and put it in front of her. "He wrote this out just to prove that he could."

The writing on the paper was beautiful. Buffy may not have known anything about the language but the lines on the paper where steady and sure. If Xander had written this, he hadn't been copying it from any of the books. There wasn't any stop to the lines that would indicate that he had kept looking at something for reference every so often.

Looking up at Giles, Buffy gave him a determined look. "Tell me everything."

BREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAK

Looking down at the court yard of the school, Xander wondered for the millionth time what was wrong with him. How could he have been so stupid? Giles had only been looking out for the best interest of everyone, including himself! Could he really say that if he did go all crazy and out of control that he wouldn't want someone to stop him? More importantly, would he want it to be Buffy? But no, instead of seeing it like that all he paid attention to was that Giles didn't trust him, didn't believe him. He still couldn't get over the hurt he had felt when Giles had said those things to him, even though he knew that his feelings were slightly justified. What made more sense, that he was now the incarnation of the Avatar or that Ethan was making with the mental mojo?

He had seen through Aang's eyes the destruction of his people though. He had seen towns and villages burned to ash and cinders because of a war that he blamed himself for, that _Aang_ blamed himself for. When Giles had told him that it hadn't really happened, he snapped. He hadn't meant to hurt Giles, he didn't want to hurt anyone for that matter, but it still happened. Maybe Giles was right. Maybe this was too much for him. He wasn't born the Avatar, he was made the Avatar. Magic and chance were the only reason he was linked to this thing that was so much bigger than he was. How was he supposed to live up to something like that?

"Stupid Avatar," he muttered. "Stupid Halloween."

Letting out a breath, Xander slumped further onto the railing he was leaning on and continued to look down from his perch in the bell tower of the school. He didn't know why they still called it a bell tower. It wasn't as if there was an actual bell in it anymore.

Sensing motion behind him, Xander looked over his shoulder and winced inwardly when he saw Buffy. She was probably here to beat some sense into him for attacking Giles. Then probably keep on beating him because he had kept something like this from her. No matter what, he was fairly certain that there was going to be a lot of beatings in his very near future. Instead of attacking him, however, she walked over, stood next to him and leaned over the railing.

"How is he?"Xander asked her.

"I think his shoulders hurt a bit but he only got the sling off the other day so it might just be sore," she told him.

Xander grunted, glad that he hadn't hurt the Watcher seriously. "I didn't mean to...for any of this. I never wanted to hurt you, to hurt Giles."

Taking a breath, Buffy nodded her head. "I get it. I'm not saying I agree with you two, or that I'm not still pissed at both of you, but I get why you did it."

"Really? Cause I'm having a hard time understanding why we did it." Xander rested his chin on his hands, slumping forward even more. "He just wanted to protect everybody and what do I do? I lash out at him. Some Avatar I am."

"OK, see, I'm not going to even try to pretend to know what you mean by that. Giles gave me the run down on what happened but honestly, I could care less." Turning, Buffy gave him a sympathetic look. "It sucks, doesn't it? Having all this...responsibility thrust on you out of nowhere. It's not an easy thing to deal with. Makes you do some stupid things every once in a while."

Xander remained silent for a moment then said, "Giles told you?"

"Yea, he told me."

"Oh."

"So, you think we should get buttons? I'm thinking buttons," Buffy said when Xander didn't add anything else.

Drawn out of his thoughts by the odd question, Xander asked the all important and eloquent question. "Huh?"

"You know, buttons," Buffy explained. "Between you, me, and Faith I think we have a good start for a group for people who have been screwed over by destiny. We could wear buttons to protest or something."

Smiling, and hiding the slight twitch that he got when he heard Faith's name, Xander shook his head. "Buttons will ruin all those frilly girl shirts you have. Besides, with our luck we'd end up stabbing ourselves with them."

"Hey, speak for yourself. I'm the stabber, not the stabby."

Buffy playfully slapped his arm and Xander was grateful that she was trying to be light. If she had come at him head on there wasn't any doubt in Xander's head that he would have jumped out of the tower to get away from any kind of questions. Now, at least, Xander knew that he actually _could_ jump from the tower and survive it.

"So, you really believe me?" Xander asked.

"I think seeing you toss Giles across the room kind of made me a believer."

Groaning, Xander hit his head on the banister. "I kind of over reacted back there, didn't I?"

"I don't know. Depends on if what he said was out of line or not. Not that I'm condoning throwing Giles into a wall with that whole wind thing or anything. But, and this may surprise you, people have said that I've over reacted a time or two." Turning her back to the open space, Buffy leaned on the banister. "So why exactly did what he say get you all worked up?"

"It's complicated," Xander muttered.

"I know. It's especially complicated when you don't tell anyone about it."

Giving her a look, Xander knew she was right. "It...it has to do with Aang, the kid that took over my body. There was...there was a war. They destroyed all of his people, wiped them out completely. He was the only one left, the last Airbender, the Avatar. He was the reason why they did it too. They were searching for him, hoping to kill him or capture him. Either way, they exterminated an entire nation based on their belief that they were better than the rest of the world."

"Who did?" Buffy asked softly.

"The Fire Nation," Xander said darkly. It wasn't that he hated them or anything. Xander knew that he didn't really know them to hate them and that not everyone from the Fire Nation was like that. Still, he got angry every time he thought about them, about what they did. "The ruler at the time got it in his head that they should rule over the rest of the Nations, that they were destined to do so. The Avatar was supposed to keep things like that from happening, to preserve peace throughout the Nations. Instead, not only was I not there but I was the reason the Airbender's were destroyed."

"You said 'I'."

"Hmm?"

"_'I _wasn't there.' Giles said that you only got some images from that kids life." Buffy watched Xander carefully for a moment, noticing that he wasn't looking at her. "That wasn't exactly true, was it?"

"I thought it was but...now I'm not so sure." Xander felt his throat tighten up as he spoke. "It's not like I _remember_ anything. Not like you would something that happened to you but it's not exactly images, Buffy. It's like...a part of Aang that wasn't just the Avatar stayed with me. Thoughts, feelings, things that I wouldn't have done before now seem like the most obvious course of action in the world. And every time I think I think back on what happened to the rest of the Airbender's, I..." Stopping, Xander clenched his fist and wanted nothing more than to tear down the tower they were in. Rip apart the entire school, brick by brick with his bare hands if it would mean that he could just feel slightly better.

Before the anger in him could get any worse, Xander felt a hand on his shoulder. He at Buffy and didn't even bother to hide the fact that he was about ready to cry or scream, maybe both. Not needing to say anything, or even move, she wrapped her arms around him and held tightly. It was comfort, plain and simple and he was grateful for it. In the short time that he had been dealing with what he was and what it meant, he never considered the possibility that he might need someone who could just understand. Buffy was that person. Like him, fate had thrust something that was bigger than herself on her shoulders and it would be hers till she died. Sure, it was different in a lot of ways, but what was important was how it was the same.

Xander returned her hug and didn't hold back the few tears that slid down his cheeks. They stayed like that for a bit, holding each other, till Xander broke away from her with a slight sniff. Buffy gave him a warm smile, something that was also meant to comfort him but only served to make him feel slightly awkward. He wasn't supposed to get emotional, not in front of anyone anyway.

"You OK?" she asked.

"Who, me? Never better," he lied. "I'll be alright. It's just...a lot."

"I can imagine."

Interrupting the moment, Xander's stomach growled rather loudly. "Heh, guess I kind of lost track of time. What time is it anyway?"

"Almost four," she told him.

"Four! I've been up here for three hours?"

"Hey, give me a break. I searched everywhere for you. It's not like I knew you'd be up here or anything. It takes time to find someone." Buffy started for the stairway that lead back down to the rest of school and stopped. "Just so you know, I told Giles to fill Willow in when she gets here."

Wincing, he said, "I'm pretty much a dead man, aren't I?"

"Oh yeah."

Sighing in defeat, Xander followed Buffy down the stairs. "Hey, do you think I can get out of Spanish class if I tell them I know Chinese?"

BREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAK

The bar wasn't particularly busy despite the hour. It was a Wednesday night after all, but still, it would have made him feel more comfortable if there were a few more bodies milling about. Nothing like a good human shield to put between you and harms way. It wasn't as if he was expecting trouble, but in this town, especially after what had happened to the Mayor, you couldn't be too careful. It was this exact reason why Ethan had picked a back booth, facing the door and the kitchen, for his meeting tonight. He signaled the waitress for another beer as he glanced at his watched and noted that his associate was running late. He wasn't worried about his safety, not by any means. The man had proven to be capable of handling himself when the need called for it but also his rather...influential backers had a tendency to scare off anything more than the typical vampire and the like.

He had to admit, watching the demons of this town go crazy this past week had been fun, but he was ready to get down to work. There was only so much a man could take of listening to demons that once had the backing of the Mayor be eaten alive, mostly literally, once everyone knew that he was dead. Old power bases fell and new ones struggled to emerge. Everyone was looking to be the new Lord and Master of the Hellmouth but what none of them understood was that it was going to take more than muscle and claws to come out on top. Chances were good that whoever was going to fill the Mayors shoes was already well on their way to doing just that and everything else was just an exercise in futility. Still, it was better be out of harm's way and come back after the smoke cleared and the bodies had all been buried.

Which was why Ethan didn't understand what in the hell he was still doing here and why they were meeting tonight. It made much more sense to give it more time, to wait till the Harris boy was off guard and not expecting an attack and then move in. A week seemed hardly enough time but his partner in this God awful quagmire that was an operation insisted on it. Ethan would have much rather been sitting on a beach somewhere with a girl on each arm but, sadly, that wasn't going to be the case.

Just as the beer arrived, the door to the bar opened and Ethan watched it carefully. Satisfied by who walked in, and he was alone, Ethan released his hold on the spell he had been preparing. It was a simple trick but one that would have caused a lot of people to be hurt and giving him enough of a window to escape. Always have a good escape route. That was key to any meeting.

He waited till the other man sat down and ordered his own drink, a beer as well but one of the dreadful American kinds, before Ethan spoke.

"Honestly, I don't understand how you Yanks drink that swill. You might as well be drinking piss if you wanted something that bad," Ethan said in disgust.

"Just remember who's picking up the tab," he responded taking a sip. "Besides, I think we have more important matters to discuss than what I'm drinking, don't you?"

"Yes, remind me again why we're here? We both decided to lay low, wait for a bit of time to go by before we came back, wasn't that right?" Ethan looked around, slightly paranoid, but he had every reason to be. Sunnydale wasn't the best place for him to be. "And why here of all places? I feel like I'm going to have the Slayer's Watcher walking in and kicking my ass from here to next Sunday."

"Would you prefer a demon bar maybe? Sit around in a room with a bunch of drunk creatures that 're already on edge and just looking for an excuse to throw down? No thank you. Besides, don't you think I checked this place out already? Nobody that we don't want seeing us comes in here."

"That still doesn't explain why you moved up the meeting," Ethan stated with a glare. "I don't appreciate being screwed with."

"Relax," he told him. "I've got good reason for why we're moving in now. Things have changed."

Ethan watched careful as the man across from him produced a folder from the bag he had carried in. Opening it after it was tossed on the table, he looked at what seemed to be several photo's of Harris in a park of some sort, it was easy to see that they were of him doing some kind of exercise. The last two were the most interesting, however. In one he had his fist thrust out in front of him, pointing towards a tree trunk, and in the last half of the tree trunk was simply gone and dust was starting to settle in the background.

"The kid's training himself. In one week he's progressed farther than we thought he would. Seeing this kid in action...if we don't move in soon it'll be too late. If it was just neutralizing him, it'd be a different story."

"Yes, yes, I know. We need him alive. I just don't understand how this happened. He never showed any signs of having access to this before last week. Are you sure that your sources were correct?" Ethan asked him.

Glaring, the man answered, "Of course they were. He _couldn't _have done anything like that before. He had these mental blocks on him. It's also what made him invulnerable to any kind of mind magic or psychic influence. The damn kids head is so protected that even if someone could get in it'd kill 'em or drive them nuts. Chances are _you_ knocked something lose inside the kids head somehow."

"Me?" Ethan said louder then he meant to. Looking around to make sure no one was paying attention, he lowered his voice. "How the bloody hell do you reason that this was _my_ fault? It could have easily been someone from in your organization."

"Please," he snorted. "You know they couldn't have done anymore than keep an eye on him. You sure you didn't try anything when you got him out of town? Not even a little mojo to keep your ass protected safe?"

"No, of course not. Do you really think I would have brought the demons you insisted on if I had been able to perform a bit of magic? Your people are the ones who said not to mix magic, especially chaos magic, with Harris around."

"Well, I sure as hell didn't do anything. I wasn't even near him."

"Yes, I'm well aware of that. You weren't the one risking your life to bring him in."

"Not risking my life? I didn't see you sneaking into the Mayors office and laying down traps for him."

"Oh, yes, how could I forget? How hard it must have been for you to break in while no one was there and set up the spell that _I_ created. I'm sure that it must have been very difficult for you."

Leaning forward, the man growled, "No one was around? The place was crawling with vampire guards. Not to mention the fact that I had to wait around for Wilkins to show to get the last part of the spell. It wasn't easy, alright?"

"You just needed a hair of his, anything like that would have done. Why in the world did you wait till he showed up?" Ethan asked slightly aghast. The spell was simple thaumaturgy set up to work within the Mayors own defensive spells. A single sample would have worked. A hair was just the easiest to get most of the time.

"The man's in the know, Rayne. You don't get to be where he was without taking some precautions. Plus, the guy was a clean freak. You should have seen how many bottles of hand sanitizers and wipes he had stashed in his office."

"Fine, but I think it's safe to say that neither one of us had anything to do with this...reawakening of his. An outside force must have been at play. There isn't enough information on this entity to make any informed guess. For all we know it could have been some kind of survival instinct on its part, giving Harris access to its power to protect itself." Ethan took a drink and shook his head.

Not committing one way or the other, the man said, "Either way, he can. From what I've been able to piece together, he's only going to get stronger. The longer we wait, the less likely we'll be able to take him down without the possibility of killing him."

"It's not going to be easy. I know Rupert and he's going to be keeping a watch over the boy. Not only that but he probably has his Slayer going out and looking for me when she has the free chance." Ethan frowned. "I'd really prefer to not get caught by the likes of her."

"Don't worry about the Slayer. I have a plan for dealing with her, the Watcher too."

"Because your last plan went so well? If I had actually paid for that car I would be upset by the amount of damage it received. Not to mention paying those Hessing demons in advance."

Grinning, the man leaned back in his booth, drinking his beer. "Trust me, this time it's got something that the last plan didn't. Some information has been brought to light that we're going to make use of."

With a wary look, Ethan said, "What sort of information?"

"The information's good, though you may be running into your old pal Rupert sooner than you think."

"Oh?"

"All part of the plan."

"And just when does this plan of yours take place?"

"Tomorrow night."

Ethan laughed to himself, shaking his head. "You expect to get this plan of yours, whatever it may be, moving and completed in one day?"

"I have something that'll give us an edge."

Watching him reach into his pocket, Ethan relaxed when he saw that it was only a cell phone. He dialed a number and within three seconds, someone must have picked up on the other end because he started speaking again.

"Yes, I'd like to speak with Holland Manners please. Of course. Tell him that it's Lindsey McDonald. I'm ready to give myself up."


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N: **_First and foremost, thank you for all the reviews. They do make me work faster and harder on the story so, go team! But, a few things I'd like to say. Cylon One over has been helping to point out some of my, probably, many grammar mistakes, so thanks for that. Also, AbscondingCascade at pointed out that the British don't use the metric system, something I was lead to believe they did. (Also, I thought they were smarter than us Americans for it, but they are now just as dumb as us.) So, for the purposes of that tiny exchange in chapter three, England is using the metric system in this universe. Deal with it. There are many more people to thank, but this has gone on long enough. So, thanks again to everyone and if you have anything to say, feel free to review. (Also, the page break thing isn't working so there are lines, hopefully, where they should be. Hope it's not too confusing)

Chapter 4

Leaning back in his chair, Giles removed his glasses, rubbing his weary eyes. For the better part of four hours, he had been going through the books that Xander had pointed out to him earlier saying that all of them had some reference to different spirits he claimed existed in the Spirit World, as he called it. Xander had been kind enough to translate all of the passages that seemed important, especially those that referred to two particular spirits, Tui and La, the Ocean and Moon Spirit. He still swore that Tui had been killed and that the new Spirit of the Moon was a young woman named Yue. None of the books made any mention of it and frankly it didn't seem to be of any great concern in the long run. Not to Giles anyway. To Xander, on the other hand, it was a very important. Whoever this Yue person was who became the Moon Spirit, however that happened, she was important.

Sighing, Giles looked down at the legal pad filled with Xander's barely legible handwriting. He had spent most of the day making it through most of the grammatical thicket before needing a break. Honestly the boy seemed to ignore sentence structure almost on purpose. It was his own fault, really. He wouldn't have been there nearly this long if he hadn't spent the first few hours re-translating the passages. It's not that he didn't trust Xander when he said that he could read, write and, as it turned out, speak both Mandarin and Cantonese, but, well...he simply couldn't believe it. His own skills in those languages where spotty, at best, and his translations had been a jumble of words and confusing sentences. Finally, he coincided that Xander did in fact know it, even if it was an older form of the language. He admitted, with less reluctance than Xander might have believed that his new found knowledge lends credibility to the fact that what he's been saying this whole time might in fact be true. It was certainly an incredible story, almost unbelievable, but it was getting harder to deny its validity.

Cringing as the aches in his body made themselves known, Giles got up and started busying himself with making tea. Getting slammed into a wall by Xander hardly did wonders for the injuries that were still healing. He didn't really want any tea, but the act of making and drinking it should at least keep him awake for a while longer. He really did want to look through these notes more thoroughly. Perhaps he had been too hard on Xander. The boy clearly hadn't asked for any of these things to happen to him and he truly did want to help. Even before any of this had happened, he had always been there ready to run into the fray at a moment's notice regardless of the dangers he might face. Sometimes shockingly oblivious to the dangers at all if it meant helping any of his friends, and, Giles had to admit, himself included. Xander had risked his own life to help get him out of Angelus Manor not a year ago. He'd earned his trust, of course, but what he failed to see was how horribly wrong this could all go. There were only so many times he could explain it to Xander before he would have to take things into his own hands. He only prayed that things wouldn't progress to that point.

Frowning at that thought, Giles picked up the pad and started reading again. Chen, the man, who had written the text, originally, had been transported to what he called 'A savage land belonging to Gods where the laws of man and nature obeyed their whims alone.' He went on, in some detail, about what the place looked like and Giles knew it sounded exactly how Xander had described the Spirit World. Perhaps more poetically than Xander, but still the imagery was the same. Chen had then talked about his commune with the Spirits or Gods as he referred to them. Tui and La had defended him against a few of the other Spirits who claimed that he shouldn't be allowed to leave since he was an outsider and didn't believe.

Chen wrote, _"Had it not been for some of these Spirits intervention, I surely would have been trapped in the realm of the Gods. Only through their actions was I saved, though it was a near thing. Praise be to these two, God and Goddess_, _push and pull. Even with their help, however, I would have never made it back without the aid of the King of the Gods, the Man God_. _For while they argued, he spoke eloquently and in my favor, helping me to leave this place were no mortal should be."_

There wasn't much more to this passage, Chen went on to describe the Spirits more but nothing else that would be helpful. A few of the better texts spoke more in depth about the Spirits going to detail how some of them have manifested a few times in this reality. Though it could also be that they merely had a run in with a demon or some other supernatural being, Xander was certain that these were in fact the spirits that he was talking about. What Giles found curious was that Chen was one of the few to speak about a "Man God". Two of the other passages spoke about this mysterious spirit but Xander said he'd never heard of it, though he also said that he didn't know all of the spirits so it could just be one of the ones that he was unaware of. It was certainly something to investigate further. How they were going to do that was another story.

There were several passages to go through. Some of them Giles knew he would be able to at least reference with his other books and sources. He had put word out to some of his contacts for any book or writings that had reference to the Spirit World or any of the Spirits that Xander had mentioned. He didn't know if he would be able to get anything else but if there was even a chance that it would turn up something useful, he had to give it a shot.

The kettle boiled breaking his concentration, though at this point Giles figured that it would be best if he called it a night and got a full nights rest. Getting up and turning off the hot plate, he began to gather all of the research material together to lock away in the book cage. The last thing he needed was someone sneaking in and stealing anything that they were working on and with Ethan in the picture that was something that was likely to happen. His old friend was a sneaky, conniving bastard and if it wasn't for the symbols etched into the metal door of the book cage, Giles would have taken them home with him. He had learned his lesson when one of Spike's minions had stolen that book from him last year. Since then he had the book cage inspelled with a simple and light ward that kept people from looking in there. It would work on anyone except those that knew exactly what it was they were looking for.

Once done, Giles locked the cage door and stopped for a moment. Something didn't feel right, something was off. Before he had known that he was the only one in the library but now he wasn't so certain. It was hard to explain. It was simply the feeling that the room wasn't quite as empty as it had been before. It could be paranoia but then again, this was also Sunnydale.

Without anything more than that split second delay in his movements, Giles turned and headed back to his office trying his hardest to act like nothing was wrong. It was harder to do than most people thought but he had some practice with it. The key was to only look out of the corner of your eyes and strain your ears for any and all possible noise. If he had adjusted his movement at all it would have alerted anyone who was in the room with him that he was aware of them, forcing them to act before he was ready to defend himself. He had made it to the office before the intruder made themselves known.

"Rupert, I see you've managed to heal up nicely in such a short amount of time. Those salve recipes I picked up back when we were younger really do wonders, don't they?"

"Ethan," Giles said turning around.

Leaning on the doorframe, Ethan grinned at him. His hands were stuffed in his pants pockets as he watched him for a moment. "Was I interrupting something?"

"You should have stayed away, Ethan," Giles said darkly. "You crossed a line."

"A line? I seem to recall you going on about how there were no lines except the ones that the fascist regime put in place. Don't tell me that you've gone and joined them? My, what would poor Diedre say if she could hear you?"

"She'd tell me to kill you where you stand." Taking a step forward, Giles felt his blood boiling with rage. "You worked with Hessing's, Ethan. _HESSING'S!_ Do you have any idea what could have happened? How horrible things could have gone that night?"

"I'm fairly certain that I did," Ethan said with a role of his eyes. "Trust me, it wasn't my idea to work with them. If I had planned it out, I would have simply cast a compulsion spell on the boy but apparently nothing like that will work on him. Let alone what the bloody Hellmouth would have done to the spell. Say, do you still keep a bottle of scotch in your desk? I could kill for a drink."

Ethan started toward desk only to be stopped by Giles grabbing his arm. Locking his wrist and elbow, Giles pushed up, straining the joints and nerves in Ethan's arm, forcing him out of the office. Once in the open, Giles struck him twice in the kidneys before driving his knee into Ethan's stomach, dropping him on the floor.

"I take that as a no for the drink then?" Ethan coughed out with a chuckle.

While on the outside he was remaining cool, inside Giles was a flurry of emotions, mostly anger at himself. He had been so distracted with helping Xander that he hadn't given Ethan more attention. He had let himself believe that Ethan would stay true to form and lay low for a time. When Giles had seen the demons that Ethan was working with he should have known better. This wasn't the playful, scheming Ethan but the Ethan of old, the one who ran with him back when he was Ripper. He should have suspected that he was working with someone, working a different angle than the one he had shown them.

"What are you doing here, Ethan? Who are you working with?" Giles said flatly.

"I thought you would have worked that out for yourself by now, Rupert. It's not all that complicated."

Ethan coughed once more and spat out some blood before Giles kicked him in the ribs. "You're going to tell me. One way or the other, you're going to tell me."

"Tell me, does that scary voice ever work on anyone or do they still treat you like the bumbling librarian you pretend to be?" Ethan laughed. It was abruptly cut off by Giles foot connecting with his chin.

Grabbing him by the hair, Giles hauled Ethan to his feet only to push him back till he was laying flat on the work table. Twice he slammed the back of Ethan's head on the table before grabbing his throat.

"Tell me and I might consider letting you live."

It wasn't an idle threat and the both of them knew it. The line that Ethan crossed wasn't merely working with Hessing demons but that he had deliberately come after one of his charges. When Ethan had put Buffy in danger, it had been an act of survival, not something planned out and done deliberately. This was different though. This time he went after Xander with a clear purpose to obtain the boy and, more than likely, hurting him if not outright killing him. This was the Ethan that Giles feared would come back to haunt him one day and force him to do something like this. Part of him knew that it was inevitable, but a part of him had also hoped that they had both grown away from their younger, darker days and more foolish selves.

Ethan choked out a response but it was garbled due to his lack of air and the blood that was no doubt filling his mouth. Letting go of his throat, Giles lifted him off the table by his shirt and glared. "Who? Who are you working with? Tell me!"

Coughing, Ethan cleared his throat, wincing. "Why do you think I'm here, Rupert? I have to say, you really should know me better than this. If I had wanted a fight, do you really think I would have came at you head on?"

Seconds past while Giles stared at Ethan breathing hard as the adrenalin and hate coursed through his veins. In the end, he let go of Ethan's shirt but didn't back away. Ethan steadied himself, rubbing his throat.

"I'm glad to see that you still have a bit of your old self, Rupert, though I can't say I'm happy to be on the receiving end."

"Say what you've come to tell me before I decided to finish what I started."

Smirking, Ethan nodded and straightened himself, clearing imaginary dust from his shirt. "Right, down to business. I'm here to play my part in getting the boy away from here and into the hands of some people who are willing to pay me a pretty penny to do it."

"Who?"

"Wolfram and Hart."

"Are you mad?" Giles practically screamed. "You know what they are!"

"Precisely what I said when they approached me," Ethan told him. "But, let's just say that they can be very...persuasive when they choose to be. The question you should be asking is, 'Why Xander?' Why do they want the boy?"

Giles paused as things started to click in his head. "Because of who he is, what _you_ turned him into."

"Me? Don't look at me, mate. I had no idea what was going to happen to him that night. Chaos can be such a beautiful thing. But it's not because of who he is and what he can do, plenty of people have power like that. It's what he can become." Giving Giles a smile full of bloodied teeth, Ethan chuckled. "Think about what you saw out in the desert. Now think about someone who was like him but fully trained, fully realized in what they are. Now think about what that person could do if they worked for the other side. Trust me, Rupert, you've no idea what that boy is capable of."

"Dear Lord," Giles said, the full meaning of the words hitting him. "They plan on using Xander, on turning him into a weapon."

"Not the boy," Ethan said with disgust. "He couldn't be turned into a weapon anymore than your Slayer could. They both have too much free will, too much time to form their own ideas. Now what about someone who had been raised by Wolfram and Hart, someone that they were able to mold from the very beginning. Of course, your boy's going to have to die."

This was insane. It was absolutely insane and yet, Giles knew that Ethan was telling him the truth. He had every reason in the world to lie to him, to get him to leave him alone so he could either sneak out or attack him while his back was turned but one thing that Ethan was never good at was lying to him. Too many years spent doing cons and schemes together had made it virtually impossible for the one of them not to see the others tells. Besides, the very fact that Ethan had brought up Wolfram and Hart was reason enough to believe him. It wasn't the type of name that one dropped lightly and if the stories where true, this would be exactly the type of thing that they would be involved in.

But there was something off about this, something that wasn't sitting right with any of what had happened tonight.

"Why are you telling me this?" Giles asked him. "If you're working with them, why come to me and let me in on their plans?"

"Oh, a few reasons," Ethan replied with a shrug. "For starters, I'm not so sure that they plan on honoring our agreement. They don't seem like the types to let a deal go smoothly if they could get out of it some way. Not only that, but I'm pretty certain that giving them a tool like the Avatar would fall under the 'Bad Idea' category. I'm a survivalist at heart and I don't see myself lasting very long with that much power in their hands."

"You always did look out for your own needs," Giles sneered. "When are they planning to move? Tell me everything."

"Well, you see, Rupert old boy. That's the other reason I'm here."

The hairs on Giles neck rose up just as he heard the squeak of the library doors open and shut. He didn't have to turn around to know that several people had just entered the room and he doubted any of them were friendly.

"It's happening tonight." Glancing at the clock on the wall, Ethan said, "Actually, it should have happened five minutes ago. See, that's my part in all this. I'm the distraction. They don't want you or your Slayer getting in the way this time. They figured if I could keep you busy, you couldn't call her in to help and the rest of your little group couldn't swoop in and save the poor lad. Don't get me wrong, I hope he manages to get away. I just want to be paid before he does."

The growls got Giles attention and when he did turn around he found four vampires less than four feet behind him, all poised to strike. There was no way that he could get to anything to defend himself, let alone the phone to warn Xander or call Buffy. The moment he made a move, all of them would pounce on him and tear him to shreds.

Ethan smirked and took a step back. "I told you. If I came to fight, it would never be head on."

* * *

The night had been a good one as far as Xander had been concerned. A lot of headway had been made in such a short amount of time. Not with his training, he still had miles to go with that. But he had gone out on patrol with Buffy and Willow and he no longer had to hide his abilities from either one of them. It was freeing, like a weight lifted off his shoulder. It had been awkward at first, more for the girls than him, but that was easy to understand. He had caught Willow and Buffy a few times watching him with something unsettling in their eyes. If he had to guess, it was worry and maybe a little fear but he couldn't say for certain. Still, no one could deny that his Airbending didn't come in handy. With the number of vampires and demons that were running wild at this point, anything that they could use was a help. It also didn't hurt seeing the looks on Faiths face when they stumbled on her.

She had been doing her own patrol, something they had never been able to break her out of, and had been attracted to the sounds of their fighting. Also, as Faith later pointed out, it was kind of hard to ignore a vampire that suddenly dropped at your feet after being tossed out of a cemetery. To be fair, that wasn't really his fault. Buffy had gotten a tad bit carried away and had tossed the would-be blood sucker into an air funnel that he had been using to keep back three other vampires. It had never been used to fling such a large object but Xander had managed it with one final push.

It took some convincing on their part, but Faith finally conceded that Xander hadn't been lying to them all and wasn't planning on hurting them. He couldn't blame her on thinking that, he had after all been holding out on everyone and as a person, Faith wasn't the most trustful person. She was pretty pissed about not being let in on the secret but once she learned that no one except Giles had known about it, she calmed down, a little, anyway. She kept close to him throughout the rest of the patrol but if it was because she found the whole experience cool or if she didn't quite trust him, he couldn't tell. Either way, he was fine with it. He would have been more fine with it had Willow not insisted on keeping close as well. It's not that he didn't like his best friend, but he would have liked a moment or two to talk to Faith alone. He hadn't even seen her since they had slept together and he would have liked a chance to talk to her about it, even if she had kicked him out right after.

A few more stops, a couple more vampires, and they had decided to call it a night. Xander wasn't exactly tired, but the weariness of using so much bending in such a short amount of time had gotten to him. Stamina was definitely something he was going to have to work on.

Quietly, he opened up his front door and made his way inside. The lights were on but there weren't any noises. Like most nights, his parent's were probably passed out drunk either in their room or on the couch. It was depressing to come home to this after the nights that he usual had but he would take it over coming home to find them drunk and awake. Depending on how drunk his father was, those could be very bad nights. Luckily he hadn't experienced a night like that in a while. Though to be fair, he was generally being beaten up by a vampire or a demon or something else as equally nasty. Still, he would take those fights over anything that his father might dish out.

With a heavy head, Xander decided against making something to eat and instead went up to his room. He probably wouldn't sleep, but he would rather lock himself away in there then see the lack of food in his fridge. Vodka in the freezer? Yes. Anything that wasn't take out in the fridge? No. He loved his mother but she would never win mother of the year, not while she had her hand attached to a bottle. Then again, if he was the one married to Anthony Harris, he might drink himself into a stupor every night too.

Suppressing the urge to slam his bedroom door shut in frustration, Xander breathed in deeply and tried to calm himself. He felt better about his home life than he had in a long time but his anger at the situation was still there. His experience with Yue had helped him to let go of a lot of the pain he had been feeling, that he had kept locked inside and away from everyone, which helped more than he could even begin to say. That didn't mean that it didn't bother him to all hell, but he no longer felt completely depressed by the whole thing. He just wished that he could help his mother, help both of his parents, somehow.

A thought occurred to him after a minute. Maybe he could help them. Maybe there was something he could do to get them to stop slowly killing themselves and destroying their lives. He was the Avatar after all. He was supposed to be learning how to help people, after all. Why couldn't he do that with his parents?

Moving to his desk, Xander removed a few pieces of clothing and tossed them on the bed. It took him a few minutes of searching, but he was finally able to find a blank notebook. He needed to start making a list of things that he needed to do and how to go about it. It didn't take very long, unfortunately. Even with this burst of productivity, he couldn't come up with very many things. Not that he couldn't think of things he needed to get done but putting it down on paper was harder than he thought. It took him three tries just to get his thoughts straight enough that they weren't a jumble of words.

First and foremost, he had to learn all of the elements, so naturally that was at the top of his list. It was one of the harder things to do since he really had no way to go about learning the other bending arts. How to go about fixing it, well, really he had no idea.

Second, he had down that he needed to talk to Faith. That night just wasn't sitting right with him and he felt that if he didn't clear the air with her he wasn't going to be able to concentrate. It was easier said than done but it had to be done. He just hoped she wouldn't blow him off about the whole thing.

Next, he had to work on his relationship with Buffy and the rest of the gang. By no means did the small talk he had with Buffy mean that everything was alright between them. If she had it her way, he would probably still be on the outside when it came to the actually fighting. If it wasn't for his abilities as the Avatar he had no doubt that she would be keeping him away from anything she thought was dangerous.

Lastly, he wanted to help his parents try to be better people. He didn't know why they were they way they were. Yes, the drinking was one of the main problems but they couldn't have always been bad people, could they? He decided that he would start tomorrow with them. Hell, why wait till tomorrow? Alcohol may not be the biggest problem but he knew that there wasn't any way he could get them to listen while it was in the house. Easiest thing to do would be to get rid of it. A little childish and extreme but if it worked, so what? He would be gone before they woke up and he wouldn't have to deal with the hung over fight. If they just bought more, well, that could be removed as well.

His mind made up, Xander left his room and went into the kitchen only to stop in the doorway. The light was on and fridge door was open. It would be his luck that the night he decided to do something drastic to help his parents, one of them would wake up for a midnight beer. Before he could back out quietly, the person leaning into the fridge righted themselves and grinned at Xander.

The man who looked at him couldn't have been older then twenty-seven, at most. His hair was longer than most but still short enough that it didn't need to be pulled back to keep it from getting in his way. His face looked as if it hadn't seen a razor in a few days giving him a sort of gruff, bad-ass look. At least it would have if it hadn't been for how he was dressed. With a grey t-shirt with a flannel jacket over it, blue jeans and work boots, he seemed like he would be more comfortable on a construction site or a farm somewhere.

"I was wondering when you would show up," he said opening up a beer bottle with his bare hand. "I was starting to think you might make things easy and sleep through everything."

"Who the hell are you?" Xander asked taking an Airbending pose, ready to strike out, or run away, if necessary.

"Lindsey McDonald, kid. I'm the guy that's gonna take you in."

* * *

Lindsey hated doing things like this, especially after he had gotten a good look around the kid's house. It wasn't a home, Lindsey had decided that right away. Home's are supposed to make you feel safe, make you feel wanted. This place had more of a flop house feel. With the amount of alcohol and empty bottles he had found, Lindsey had downgraded it from flophouse to just plain disgraceful. Even his own family was never this bad. They had been dirt poor and his daddy had been a hard drinker but he had at least kept it hidden as much as he could. Never would the trash be overflowing, empty bottles spilling out onto the floor. While he sympathized and felt bad for the kid, he wouldn't let that distract him from doing what needed to be done.

It was almost comical the way the kid -Harris, that was his name- that Harris was standing there ready to fight. Well, it would have been if Lindsey didn't know that he could probably whip his ass up and down this whole house. He had enough information on him to know that he could manipulate the air around him but he couldn't do anything with the other three elements. But even one element could be enough to give him a beat down if Harris chose to do so. Lindsey had seen him in action and didn't like his chances at a fair fight. Luckily, he didn't plan on fighting fair. He didn't plan on fighting at all.

Taking a swig of the beer, Lindsey leaned against the wall and watched Harris. "Relax. If I came here to fight you would I really have been raiding your fridge for a beer?"

"Um, you just said you were here to take me in," Xander said slightly confused but not dropping his stance. "There are only a few ways I can take that."

"Oh, I am. But I'm not going to fight you. You think I'm dumb enough to take on someone like the Avatar by my lonesome?" Taking one last pull from the bottle, Lindsey put it on the counter, wiping his hands on his jeans. "You got two choices on how this goes down. Either you can step outside with me, real peaceful like, and no one gets hurt."

"Because I believe that," Xander snorted.

"_Or_," Lindsey emphasized, "You wait about, oh, two and a half minutes and some very angry and professional people break down your door and after that, I can't make any promises."

Lindsey saw Xander's eyes go wide before narrowing into slits. Even with knowing and seeing what the kid was capable of, Lindsey wasn't prepared for just how _fast_ he was. There was a rush of wind and suddenly Harris was in front of him, grabbing him by his jacket.

"Call them off!" Xander yelled. "Tell your people to back off. Now!"

Wiping the surprise off his face, Lindsey smirked. "I never said they were my people. But, they're still going to be coming in here, come hell or high water, and they'll be taking you. The question you have to ask yourself is if you're willing to risk the people you care about to save your own ass." He let that sink in for a moment. "Think about, kid. Your little witch friend, that Slayer you hang around with, that librarian, all of them. You put up a fight and none of them will make it out of this alive."

Lindsey didn't want to push him like this. It didn't feel right to him. He had done a lot worse when he was with Wolfram and Hart but the time that he had spent away from them had changed his perspective a bit. Sure, he still did what he wanted and would go about it in whichever way he felt best but that didn't mean that he felt right about some of the things he did. Threatening a kid who obviously didn't have the greatest of home lives with harm to the only kind of family he had wasn't high on his list of things he liked to do. He didn't think he was growing a conscience by any means, but maybe his sympathy and understanding were the kid was coming from was getting the better of him.

Xander's grip lessened on his jacket enough that Lindsey was able to move away from him. "I'll be outside," Lindsey told him. "Just come out and end it, Harris. It's not worth it, trust me."

Without turning back, Lindsey walked out of the kitchen and straight out the front door. Sure enough, three unmarked black vans were parked outside by the curb. The moment they saw him, all of the doors of one of the vans opened. Five men dressed in black combat uniforms, complete with all the bells and whistles, filed out of the back and pointed their rifles at him. Unperturbed, Lindsey ignored them and waited for the man in passenger seat in the van to get out. Almost without a care in the world, an older looking man, mid fifties stepped out of the van and fixed the expensive suit he wore. Holland Manners was never one not look his best. The few times Lindsey had seen the man outside of work, the most casual he got was leaving off the tie or a polo shirt when golfing.

"Lindsey," he said with a nod of his head. "I was surprised when I got your call. After all, you've worked so hard to evade us."

"What can I say, sir. Things have...changed." Lindsey cursed himself for the slip of the tongue. 'Sir' sounded too formal but he couldn't help himself. Manners had been a mentor to him, helped him to move up in the firm and had been grooming him for Special Projects. Luckily, no one seemed to be paying much attention to him. All of the men with the guns were paying more attention to Manners, waiting for the signal to either fire or take him in.

"Really? Have things changed enough to forget about you getting out of your contract with the firm? For taking over a million dollars from us? Exactly what's changed so much that would make us over look these things, Lindsey?" Manners voice wasn't hard. If anything he sounded more like a disappointed grandfather who wanted an explanation more than anything else. Lindsey knew better than that, of course. Holland Manners had and would cross lines that Lindsey didn't even want to think about. The man was as cold as ice.

"I have something that you want even more than me," Lindsay told him. "I'm thinking we deal, nice and easy."

"And what makes you think that we can't just take the information from you?" Holland asked him.

Grinning, Lindsay lifted up his wrist and pulled back his sleeve, showing the beginnings of a complicated tattoo. "Same reason your psychics haven't been able to track me down. No one and nothing could get inside my head without killing both me and them. You can't get what I know without me telling you. Sure you can have your men work me over, but you and I both know that you won't get anything from me."

Manners smiled. "That's why I hired you, Lindsey. That cunning intellect and sharp attention to detail are worth more than all the education in the world. Those books you stole from us have come in handy, I see." Giving the signal to lower their guns, Holland said, "So what is it that you have to offer?"

"Someone you've been looking for, another elusive mark."

Holland considered this for a moment. Raising an eyebrow, he asked, "And what is it you want in return? A clean slate with the firm? Money?"

"You know damn well what I want," Lindsey told him. "I want my job back."

* * *

Xander waited till Lindsey had left his house before he bolted for his room, jumping up and over the banister of the stairs instead of running up the steps. Landing in a crouch, Xander shot up and ran into his room. It took him half a minute before he could find his staff. Half a minute that he didn't have, he reminded himself. He heard doors opening outside and Xander knew that he didn't have much time. There was no way to know how many of them there would be or what kinds of weapons they would have. The smart thing to do would be to get out of there as fast as he could. The only problem with that would be that his parent's would be left all alone and at the mercy of who ever this guy had with him.

Who was this guy, anyway? He knew about Buffy, Willow and, Giles. He knew about him being the Avatar also. The only way he could know that would be if he was following him, watching him closely this past week. Was he working with Ethan or was this something else altogether? What the hell else did he know?

Maybe there was a way he could take out whoever had come here. Airbending did work best against multiple opponents but he was at a big disadvantage. Inside a closed off space like his house, Airbending was going to be difficult. If he knew Water or even Firebending he would be able to do a better job. A bit more destructive, but he'd have a better shot of winning. There was still a chance that he could pull it off, maybe draw them outside. If he could do that then he could run circles around them.

Several more doors opened and the distinct sound of boots running about outside got his attention. Nearly dropping the staff, Xander stumbled to the window and peered down and saw three men in black combat gear running into his back yard. Fighting didn't seem like it was going to be an option. Airbending wasn't going to be helpful in deflecting bullets. Running was starting to sound better and better but it still wasn't a great idea if it got his parents hurt. If only he had someone else with him, someone else that could back him up. As the thought came to him, he smacked his forehead at his own stupidity.

Xander reached for the phone and quickly started dialing Buffy's number. Hopefully she would be home by now and if not...well, she just had to be home. He hadn't made it past the first ring before all of the lights in his house went out and the phone went dead. The gun totting combat guys must have cut the lines to his house. At least that's what he thought before he looked outside and saw that every other home that he could see were also pitch black. Sure it was about midnight, but even the porch lights were off. This, above anything else, frightened him. If they cut the power to his house, they just wanted him in the dark and not able to call for help. If they did it to everyone around him, it meant that they didn't want any help being able to get to him. It also meant they these people were professionals.

The crack of wood from down stairs alerted him to someone kicking in his front door, followed shortly by someone breaking the glass on the back door. As he heard the boots hammering through the first floor, Xander griped the staff harder and ran out of the room, ready to fight. Without bothering to look, he swung the staff like a golf club, sending a wave of air down the stairs knocking down two of his would be captures coming up them back down. It didn't last long though. Both of them were already starting to get up and into shooting position. Xander didn't wait for them to be ready and jumped over them, spinning and sending out another wave of air, this time tossing Goon one and two face first into the floor with a satisfying crack.

That was as far as he got in his assault. Before Xander was able to turn and get a good look around the room and at who was attacking, he felt a sharp sting on his chest quickly followed by a numbing sensation traveling outward. His staff tumbled out of hands that were having a lot of trouble obeying his commands. With a clumsy wave of his hand, Xander found two darts sticking out of his chest. In front of him stood three more goons dressed just like the ones he had confronted on his stairs. Two of them had rifles pointed at him while the third had a hand gun that resembled a smaller version of one of the tranquilizer guns Giles had.

The numbness caught up with his legs and Xander quickly collapsed onto his face. He had been expecting to fall unconscious but instead he simply couldn't move.

"Target acquired," one of the attackers said. "Ready for clean-up crew."

Ten seconds later, several more people entered the house but Xander couldn't see any of them, not even their feet since none of them walked past him. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't manage to get even his head to turn. For all intensive purposes, he was out of this fight. No calls for help, no going down in a blaze of glory. Just laying down and letting it happen.

"What the hell's going on down here?"

_'Crap,'_ Xander thought. _'Dad.'_

Xander heard his father, who wasn't able to sleep through this much noise even in his drunken state, stumble down the stairs. There was no way to know what kind of reaction his father had when he saw the scene in the living room but whatever it was it didn't last long. Two rapid shots rang out and Xander doubted that his father had been hit with whatever he had been shot with. Boots thundered up the stairs and a few seconds later, Xander heard another two shots from upstairs.

His parents, both of them, were dead. There was no denying it, no lying to himself about it. Even with that knowledge, Xander wasn't able to bring his body to obey him. He knew that it wasn't his fault. The drug in the darts weren't going to stop working just because he tried harder, but it was still hard to not blame himself. A part of him said that he would be able to do something if he was stronger, better. But he wasn't and there was nothing he could do.

Two pairs of hands reached down and lifted him up onto a gurney where they proceeded to strap him down. His head rolled to the side giving him a better view. People in black combat gear were moving through his house. Doing what, he had no idea. All of them moved with quick precision and sure hands which made it unlikely that they didn't have practice at things like this.

Without any ceremony, they began to wheel him outside. As the turned for the door, Xander was faced with the image of his father on his side on the floor. The shots he heard had been as well executed as the rest of the evening. Both went right through the man's head and the blood and gore that he saw made Xander wish he could at least throw up. As he was wheeled outside, he watched his father's dead form grow smaller. He never liked the man, but he didn't deserve this. No one deserved this.

* * *

"You really don't get the big picture here, do you?" Ethan asked. "It's a no lose situation. If your Slayer stops them from getting Harris and I'm off the hook. If they end up running off with the boy then the world gets to keep spinning. Either way, I get my pay day and disappear"

"Just like you disappeared before? Why do I doubt that?" Giles responded.

Sighing, Ethan turned away, pretending to look at the books on the nearest shelf. "I must say, despite what my body may say at the moment, you really have changed, Rupert."

"Care to wager exactly how much?" Giles asked taking a step forward, only to stop when two of the vampires behind him grabbed him roughly by the shoulders.

There wasn't any point in struggling against them. They would have gladly ripped his arms out of their sockets if Ethan gave them the word. Actually if Ethan hadn't been there, they would have done it already. Though if Ethan weren't there the vampires wouldn't have been either.

Ignoring him, Ethan continued to peruse the bookshelves, wincing with every move thanks to the beating Giles had given him. Had it been under other circumstances, Giles would have been grinning like mad over it. No matter how much Ethan thought he had changed from his younger days, there was something very satisfying about beating someone so thoroughly. It was a part of him that he couldn't deny but one that he suppressed as much as he could. Now wasn't the time to enjoy it though. At this very moment, Xander was being attacked and taken by other agents of Wolfram and Hart and gloating over his beating of Ethan wouldn't do any good.

He had gone over several scenarios in his head, trying to figure out a way to escape his captors without getting himself killed. If he died it wouldn't help Xander's predicament either. Though if he didn't think of something fast he doubted that anything would be able to get Xander out of this mess. While he was certainly powerful, less so than was his full potential apparently, Xander didn't have any real training other than memories that he was working off of. Wolfram and Hart had trained killers and the like on retainer. For all that Xander could do, he doubted very much that he could stand up against people as focused as he had heard the law firm and its employees could be.

Going through everything again, Giles tried to find a different angle, something he had over looked, a weakness of theirs that he might be able to exploit. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind. He wouldn't make it two steps in any direction before the vampires would be on him. As long as they were around, everything else was pointless.

Off in the back corner of the Library, something fell to the floor.

"What was that? Someone else lurking around, Ripper?" Ethan asked, trying to peer around the stacks. "That budding witch, perhaps? You know the pretty red headed bird."

Again, something knocked around in the back, this time louder.

"You," Ethan pointed to one of the vampires. "Go check it out. Oh, and try not to eat whoever it is, thank you."

With a growl, the vampire moved from behind Giles and went up the steps into the stacks. He hadn't been out of sight for ten seconds before the sounds of a short scuffle could be heard followed by the telltale noise of a vampire exploding into dust. After that, silence reigned.

"Well, that certainly didn't work out as well as I had hoped, now did it?" Ethan said. There wasn't a trace of concern on his face. If anything, there was a ghost of a smile on his lips.

_'Could he actually be enjoying himself?'_ Giles thought. _'Well, that's stupid. Of_ _course_ _he's enjoying himself.'_

"I suppose this is the part where I keep sending vampires off to investigate till you've taken care of all of them, hmm?" Ethan chuckled shaking his head. "Sorry, but this isn't some fly by night operation."

"That's OK," Faith said stepping out from behind the stacks. "I'm not much for hiding in the shadows anyway."

Jumping over the railing onto the main floor, Faith landed and rushed the remaining three vampires. Two went to meet her head on, the third choosing to move closer to Giles. It was probably a plan that they had used numerous times before, making sure that at least one stayed with the target at all times so they couldn't run. It must have worked or else they wouldn't have made it a part of their repertoire. The problem was that most of the time, vampires were sent after normal humans, people that got too close to something that Wolfram and Hart wanted kept secret. A Watcher, even an ex-Watcher, was more prepared than the average person.

As Faith took on the two vampires with savage ease, Giles threw his head back breaking the vampire's nose that had moved close to guard him. It wasn't going to stop the demon, but it would at least stun him for a moment allowing Giles to run to his office. Try as he might, he wasn't fast enough. The vampire caught up with him, grabbed him by his shirt collar and pulled him bodily to the floor. Looking up, Giles saw the vampire looming over him ready to pounce. A second later, the vampire exploded into dust covering Giles and making him cough as it entered his mouth and nose.

"Looking for this?" Faith asked holding a stake. Faith offered her free hand to him, which Giles quickly accepted. "The Brit made a dash for it the moment the fighting started. I was a bit busy with the vamps to follow 'em. Gotta say, he looked real messed up even as he hauled ass. I could probably catch 'em if you want."

Moving around Faith, Giles grabbed his jacket off the chair. Heading to the phone, he said, "Ethan isn't the worry at the moment. We need to get to Xander as fast as possible."

"Why? What's going on? And while we're on the subject, why the hell wasn't I told about what's been going on this whole time? Bad enough you guys left me out of the little pow wow last week but you would think something like super powers would get a girl a bit of a heads up," Faith said annoyed.

"Faith, shut up," Giles snapped much to the dark haired Slayers surprise. "Xander is in real danger at the moment. It may already be too late. His only hope is that someone gets to him as fast as possible. Is that understood?"

Without a moment's hesitation, Faith nodded her head. "Yeah, got it." Turning on her heel, Faith took off at a dead run.

"Faith, wait!" Giles yelled before Buffy picked up the other line. "Buffy, we have a problem."

* * *

Being strapped to a gurney while in the back of a van had become one of Xander's least favorite things. For starters, who ever had thrown him in the back had also tossed his staff in without looking and it was currently stuck between the wall and his neck. While he may not be able to move a muscle, he was more than capable of feeling the pain of it pressing into his flesh, chocking him slightly. Even though he had an armed escort riding along with him who saw his discomfort, it was too much for them to move the offending object. They simply sat on a crate with their guns on him.

The second the door's had closed, the van had started moving. It was difficult to figure out how fast they were going or even what direction they were headed. All he knew was he didn't want to go where ever they were headed and at the moment, he was powerless.

_'Think, damn it! There has to be a way out of this,'_ Xander thought furiously. It was no use. Without being able to move he was completely screwed. He had failed. He couldn't protect his parents, couldn't even defend himself. What kind of Avatar was he? Hell, what the kind of _person_ was he?

The van jumped as it turned a corner, the gurney sliding across the vans floor. Without it being secured, Xander moved with every tiny jolt of the van. Which was why when they came to a sudden stop, the gurney along with Xander flew forward crashing into his guards. Falling on to his side, Xander lay wondering what had happened. Several seconds later, something hit the back doors and he could hear the sounds of a short struggle going on. The doors ripped open, street light flooding in but at the angle he had fallen, he wasn't able to see anything.

With a heavy jerk, Xander felt the gurney be pulled from the van and was unceremoniously dropped on the street. The sounds of fighting got louder now that he was out of the hand but the only thing he could see was the night sky above. With a snap, the restraints tying him to the gurney broke.

"You able to stand, Boy Toy?" Faith asked him stepping into his eye line.

The most he was able to get out was a weak grunt. It was more than he was able to do a moment ago but still not enough to really get any point across. Faith grabbed his shirt, hauling him to his feet. When it was clear that he wasn't able to stand on his own, she swung one of his arms over her shoulder and supported him. Finally he was able to get a good view of what was going on around him.

All three vans had been stopped, one of them by the tree its front end was currently wrapped around on the side walk, its driver and passenger slumped in the cab either unconscious or dead. Buffy and Angel stood fighting off several of the goons that had kidnapped him. Their guns nowhere in sight though from the blood soaking through his shirt, it looked as if Angel had taken a few shots to the chest. While they may have been an effective combat unit, perfectly timed and ready to shoot at a moment's notice, when it came hand to hand none of them could come close to the vampire and the Slayer.

Finishing up with his current opponent, Angel rushed over to Faith and Xander, switching places with the dark haired Slayer. "Go, help Buffy," Angel told her, grunting from his wounds as he took the full weight of Xander.

As Faith ran to assist the other Slayer, Xander caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eyes. The drug must have started to wear off because he was able to, with much difficulty, to move his head rather heavily in the direction he saw something move. Lindsey and an older man were moving away from one of the vans with one of the goons standing in front of them keeping guard. Grunting, Xander managed to choke out a signal causing Angel to turn towards them.

The older man caught sight of Angel, his eyes widening. There was recognition in his eyes and when the guard trained his gun on them, the older man said something that made him stop. Whoever he was, that guy was in charge of things here. He was the reason they had come here tonight, the man who gave the order to kill his parents. If it hadn't been for him, none of tonight would have happened. Even if that wasn't true, Xander didn't care. He was beyond angry, beyond pissed. If he knew Earthbending right now he would have made the ground beneath their feet open up and swallow them whole.

Inhaling as deeply as he could, Xander blew out a gust of wind that knocked Lindsey, the man in charge and the guard to the ground. Hard.

The look Angel gave him would have been priceless if it wasn't for the fact that Xander was too blind with rage to care. He still didn't have enough control of his body to move well but he was starting to get the pins and needles feeling throughout his body, signaling that his muscles were slowly beginning to reawaken. Still, it wasn't enough for any real attack. With another lung full of air, Xander blasted all three men again. This time the air was more compressed and had enough force to shove all of them into the van that had hit the tree, tipping it onto its side.

"Bring me closer," Xander slurred. When Angel didn't respond, Xander tried to kick his shin but only managed to flop toward him in his general direction. "Move me!" Much to his dismay, Angel didn't even flinch as he kicked him lazily.

"Hold still," Angel told him. "And stop kicking me. It's...annoying."

Half struggling, Xander tried to get free of Angels hold on him so he could at least try to crawl his way over and strangle the bastard who came after him. Instead, Angel took him back to the curb, set him down, and ran off to help make sure all of the combat guys were taken out. Xander fumed at his inability to do more. Even as he sat there, he could see Lindsey and the older man get up and start for another van. They didn't even bother to check to make sure that their guard was OK or not. Lindsey merely grabbed the man's gun, gave Xander one last look of anger, then grabbed the older man by the elbow and lead him away.

_'No,'_ Xander thought. _'He can't get away. I won't let him.'_

Grunting with the effort it took, Xander didn't bother to try to get up. His limbs were quickly getting back under his control but trying to stand would have cost him more time. Instead he crawled over to the van that his staff had been tossed in. It took less time than he had expected but Lindsay and the man had already made it to the last remaining van and had it started.

Luckily, the men in the back of the van were still unconscious so as Xander pulled himself up, he at least didn't have to worry about that. Grabbing the staff, Xander stood on shaky legs, using it as support and set his sights on the quickly retreating van. It was too far for any air strike that he could muster at the moment, but that was fine with him. He had something else in mind.

"Xander!" Buffy called as she ran up to him. "Christ, are you alright? What happened?"

Instead of answering, Xander started walking in the same direction as the van, his face set. _'It has to work,'_ he pleaded. _'I _know _it will work,'_ he amended with grim determination.

"Xander, come on, we have to get out of here. Even Sunnydale cops can't ignore this much mess." Buffy tried to get a hold of his arm but Xander shrugged her off and kept walking.

His muscles were still feeling like jelly but that was okay. All Xander needed to do was get a good start and his Airbending would take care of the rest, if he was right anyway. No, he knew he was right. He knew it on an instinctively. This was the key, the reason behind why he became Aang.

With staff in hand, Xander slammed it end first on the ground. For a moment he thought that he had been wrong, that he was just grasping at straws. A split second later, he heard the click of panels opening and a small smile fell on his lips. From the top portion two handles popped up along with a pair of large blue wings a few inches below them. From the bottom, another pair of wings were deployed which resembled the top two except much smaller in size.

Without another word, Xander took two steps forward, leapt into the air, grabbing the handles and created an air current large enough to get him into the air. Being his first time with a glider, his strength was off slightly and instead of gently rising into the air, Xander shot forward and up into the night sky. Right now, it didn't matter how tired his body was or if his limbs didn't respond they way they should. He didn't need them to ride the air currents.

While in the air, he easily caught sight up to the van and snarled as he started his descent. Once he was over it, Xander dropped on to the roof and, with a twirl, closed the glider. The sound of him landing must have alerted the men inside because almost instantly gunfire erupted and several bullets punched through the roof but missed him completely. Shooting a gun while driving was hard to do but it was also pure luck that he didn't get hit. None of that mattered at the moment though. The possibility of getting shot didn't even enter his mind as Xander got himself ready.

Moving his arms, Xander created a current of air around the van. It was the same thing he would have done to help speed him along as he ran only on a bigger scale. Instantly, the car propelled forward at speeds that the driver simply wasn't ready for. Even as it swerved across the road, Xander didn't let up and poured more into the current, adding on even more speed. It finally became too much for both car and driver and it veered to the left. Like any good made van, the turn proved to be murder on its center of gravity and the moment they took the sharp left the van had started to flip on its side. Xander jumped off the roof before it turned and landed safely, if heavily, to the pavement, watching as the van rolled.

As he sat there, watching the wreckage to see if anyone came out, Xander couldn't help but feel some sort of pleasure in taking out his enemies as he had. Of course, right after that feeling came the one of horror as he realized what he had done, what he had used his abilities to do. Was it that part of Aang that was left behind that was making him feel like he had let himself down, let many people down by behaving like this? Did it even matter? He still felt like he did. He had still acted like the very things he had sworn to himself to defend against.

Sirens sounded in the background but Xander didn't pay them any mind. When someone grabbed him by his shoulders, he didn't care if it was the police, paramedics or someone else that started with a 'P'. As it turned out, it was Buffy and Faith who quickly ushered him away from the area. At some point he must have passed out because the next thing he knew he was laying on someone's couch with several people hovering about him. The lights that were on hurt his eyes too much forcing him to squint.

"They came right at us," a female voice said. "They just drove right into us."

"When did this happen? _How _did this happen?" someone, this time a male, asked.

"He _flew_?" someone else asked. "When did he fly?"

Clamping his eyes shut against the light, Xander felt a pair of hands run themselves over his body, checking him for injuries. He tried to sit up and was quickly pushed back down.

"Relax," he heard Giles say. "Relax."

Taking his advice, Xander let himself fall into the blissful darkness of unconsciousness.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: A big thank you goes to Greywizard who has been suckered into being my beta. He's helped out a lot and hopefully the grammar issues that I can't seem to catch will no longer be an issue. Oh, and I had someone comment how the story goes a bit slow, which I admit it does. I'm kind of a slow build when it comes to storytelling, but that's just the way I am. Sorry if it seems that way. (Oh, and I welcome any and all critiques, they don't bother me and I like them. They help me to know what I'm doing wrong.) And again, thanks for all the reviews and some of the well thought out questions. It's nice seeing people taking an interest in this. So, hope you enjoy.

Chapter 5

The sun was setting behind him, letting him know that it was time to get going. With a sigh, Xander stood up from his spot on Kingman's Bluff where he had been looking out at the sea. The place had a weird feel to him but it was one of his favorite places to meditate or simply think. There was a connection to something here, something that allowed him to get in touch with his inner self easier, even if it did make his skin crawl slightly. Bending down and picking up his staff, Xander gave the ocean one last look before he turned and started back for town.

Even with the sun setting, it was too light out for him to consider opening the glider and flying back but the thought was extremely tempting. When gliding, he felt free. It was simple and exhilarating, almost too much so. More than once he felt the urge to keep flying, to keep moving. Even though he knew he couldn't sustain long distance flight with the glider he still wanted to just keep going as far as he could. He chalked it up to a mixture of his own feelings as well as the Air Nomad in him from Aang. But he was realistic. Getting up and running away, or flying in his case, wasn't a plan that was in any way feasible.

It didn't take long to make it into town, due to the bit of Airbending Xander used to speed him up. He stopped when he got close enough to where people might see him and simply walked the rest of the way. The only problem with being on Kingman's Bluff was that in order to get back to the school, he had to walk down certain streets he'd rather avoid. Sure, he could go a different way, walk around the area instead of going through it or around other blocks, but that would have taken longer. Of course, that was just the excuse he used, something that he told himself to give him a reason to walk past it a few times a week. A psychologist would probably have a field day with him, he reflected, but Xander couldn't stop himself. He needed the reminder of what was at stake should he ever let himself slip, if he ever stopped working at being better, stronger.

When he got to the front of his old home, Xander stopped and stared. There wasn't much left of the place. A few support beams still stood in place, sticking out of the rest of the burnt rubble. It seems that Wolfram and Hart's team hadn't been content with simply coming in and taking him. After he had been tossed in the van, they had set fire to the place to cover their tracks, Giles had said. Considering that it had taken the fire department over fifteen minutes to get on the scene, the blaze was well out of control and had torn through the house, leaving nothing in its wake. Xander had asked about the bodies of his parents but Giles had merely shaken his head. He didn't need any more explanation than that.

No one had done anything with the property, which really wasn't very surprising. The police, when they finally did show up, had claimed it as a crime scene. That in itself wasn't that unusual, but the fact that they hadn't taken down the crime scene tape for a good two weeks was. Generally speaking, if the cops of Sunnydale kept a crime scene open for more than a couple of days, something really big must have gone on and while the citizens of the town may turn a blind eye to the actual evil in the area, they knew to stay away from something like that, just in case whatever had happened wasn't done yet. So, instead of some company coming in a clearing the site and building a new house, the burnt out shell of his home stayed how it was. A constant reminder to Xander of what happens to people because of him, because of who he was and what that meant to certain people.

Shaking his head, Xander moved on.

A month had passed since the attack and attempted abduction and things had reverted to a sense of peace. Well, at least Sunnydale's version of peace. The vampire and demon attacks had dropped back down to the levels from before the Mayor had been killed, which was cause for both relief and concern. It made patrols more manageable again, but it also meant that someone new had taken the Mayor's place and was taking control of the demon underworld and pulling strings. There was no way of knowing who, not until they made their big move. But if they were going by the previous years' examples that would probably be some time around May or June.

Being eighteen, the one thing that Xander didn't have to worry about was child services, not that they had been any help to him in the past. Everyone had questioned him about the fire but not a single person had asked him what he was going to do now. Sunnydale and the great State of California didn't seem to really care that much about people like him, people who had lost everything but were 'adults' in the eyes of the law. His choices had been reduced to the street or a shelter, both of which would make him a prime target for vampires. Buffy's mom had told him under no circumstances was he alone and had immediately said he could stay with them. It was sweet of her to offer, but Xander wasn't about to put her or Buffy in any more danger. They already had enough to worry about with the enemies Buffy had with being the Slayer. If Wolfram and Hart or Ethan decided to take another shot at him, then all of them would become a target.

Everyone had offered him a place to stay if he needed it. Even Angel had offered him a room in the mansion 'til he knew what he was going to do. That had been one of the weirdest conversations he'd had recently, which was saying something, but for some reason, it caused Xander to break into uncontrollable laughter. Even if everyone thought he had lost his mind, it was what he had needed at the time. Of course he had declined the offer but for reasons he couldn't explain, it had meant a lot to him. Even though he made no qualms about not really liking Angel, the ensouled vampire had still offered his aid. Still, he was left with the problem of not having a place to live.

At least, that's what he had thought.

Giles had been quiet while everyone fussed with Xander but was always there, in the background, whenever anyone tried to offer him aid. It had been about a week before Xander realized that he had spent every night since the attack on Giles' couch. There had always been a reason to go back there each night. Helping Giles piece together more of what had happened that night, going over more of the history of the Avatar and his world, and other various excuses Giles had found for him to return there. When Xander had started to bring up the fact that he had been there for too long, Giles had stood up from his chair, went into a drawer, removed a key and handed it to him, explaining that there was a perfectly good spare room in the back of the apartment that he could use. Before Xander could argue, Giles had told him that he needed to stay somewhere, and that it made more sense to be here where Giles could help him train and where he didn't need to worry about there being too many people wanting to 'help him'. There wasn't any arguing and, honestly, Xander didn't have it in him not to accept it.

Giles was also doing more than just offering him a place to stay. He had helped purchase clothes to replace the ones lost in the fire, straightened out some paperwork and forms the city had for him, and even assisted with making arrangements for his parents' funeral. His own family hadn't bothered to do more than send a condolence card, if that. It would be wrong to say that Giles had become a father figure of sorts this past month, but he and Xander had definitely become closer. Giles even started paying him for his help with training Buffy and researching, something that had embarrassed him at first, seeing it as some kind of charity. Giles had insisted on it, saying that he would do the same for any of them but that he was currently the one who needed it most. Even if that was a lie, Xander couldn't turn him down. So, swallowing his pride, he accepted but swore to not only pay Giles back, but to do as much as he could to help Giles in any way he could.

The majority of Xander's time, when not in school, with his friends, or researching he spent training. More so than before, he threw himself into the task of mastering Airbending. Multiple times a day he practiced, getting more comfortable with it every day. He ignored trying to get a hold on the basics of the other elements, instead focusing solely on air. That suggestion had come from Giles. He had commented that he was trying to do too much at once, that if he ignored everything else and worried only about his technique in the one area that the results would be that much greater. Needless to say, the improvements he had made were staggering. In less than a month, Xander was very near to mastering Airbending. He came to that realization last week when he saw how easily he could manipulate the element and that he had actually mastered all thirty-six tiers of Airbending. If it was because of how much he was putting into his training or that he was merely catching up to Aang's own level, he couldn't say. But even his body had changed with training.

He had never been overweight, but he wouldn't have ever considered himself small. Sure, he'd had a few extra pounds on him, but nothing too bad, and definitely nothing that anyone would consider fat. He had thought that he had trimmed some after starting to fight alongside Buffy, but now he noted that there was a definite change. He didn't bulk up or anything like that, it was actually the opposite. He slimmed down a great deal and instead of gaining huge bulking muscles, they had become tauter, more toned. He was still larger than most Airbenders' but his new build certainly helped when gliding. Giles was a bit concerned at how fast his body was responding to the training, but Xander just chalked it up to the strangeness of the Avatar.

Walking up to the condo door, Xander fished his keys out of his pocket and let himself into the apartment. He had stopped feeling awkward about sharing the apartment and simply accepted it. Besides, it felt nice to belong somewhere, even if it was only for a short time.

"Ah, Xander? I'm glad you made it," Giles said from inside the kitchen alcove in a forced polite tone causing Xander to instantly become wary.

"Um, yeah," Xander putting his staff in the umbrella stand by the door. "You said you were making that Cottage Pie again. I wasn't about to miss it."

Giles stepped out into the living room and nodded his head. "Yes, well, tonight's dinner may have to be postponed a bit. We have a visitor."

A young man dressed in an immaculate dark suit and wire rimmed glasses followed Giles from the kitchen. His hair, like his clothes, was well groomed and it seemed as if not a single strand was out of place. The man's face was set in what could have been mistaken as a serious look but for some reason it struck Xander as being too forced. It seemed to him much more like a lot of false bravado without anything to back it up. Still, he'd been wrong before.

"Wesley Wyndam-Pryce," the man said, sticking out his hand.

"Xander Harris," Xander replied shaking the offered hand. _'Clammy, limp, and weak. OK, maybe he is just forcing it.'_

"Wesley was sent here by the Council. He's Buffy and Faith's new Watcher." Giles didn't wait for Xander's reaction. Muttering an 'excuse me', he turned and headed back into the kitchen.

Xander was pretty sure that his mouth was hanging open but he didn't seem to care at the moment. Turning from watching Giles walk away and closing his mouth, Xander faced Wesley and was somehow glad that the man had the decency to look slightly uncomfortable. Neither said anything for a moment, which only seemed to make Wesley more uncomfortable. Finally, the man spoke up.

"So, er, Mister Giles said that you're his, um, flat mate. Is that right?"

"Um, yeah," Xander said distractedly. "You're the new Watcher? As in replacement?"

"Yes," Wesley replied. His chest seemed to swell with self-importance a bit as he started talking. "The Council wanted to make sure that both Slayers are seen to in a more professional manner. Their training needs to be seen to as well as assessments of their current missions."

Xander looked Wesley up and down as he half listened. "You're sure you're a Watcher? Giles, are you sure he's a Watcher?"

"If you're referring to the incident with Gwendolyn Post I can assure you that all of my credentials have been checked. Rather thoroughly, I might add," Wesley added the last bit with some resentment.

"What? Oh, no, that's not it. It's just that, well, you don't seem very Watcher-like. Sure, you're British and seem a bit stiff, but I thought Watchers were supposed to be old? Not to mention tough."

A snort from the kitchen made both Xander and Wesley turn but when they received no answer, Wesley went back to Xander. "I'll have you know that I'm one of the youngest Watchers' in recent history to be given an active Slayer to guide. I am more than fully capable and trained. If I wasn't, do you really believe the Council would approve of me being here? Which is more then I can say for the rag-tag team of bloody teenagers that have been allowed to follow the Slayer around."

The change from confused and dumbfounded to angry happened swiftly and suddenly. If Xander hadn't been working on self control and meditation, he would have ended up striking out at the man. Instead he merely replied, "Hey, we've been doing a hell of a lot more than the Council has. Where the hell have they been these past years, huh?"

"The Council has far more important things to deal with, than the daily activities of the Slayer. It's why they assign a Watcher, usually a competent one."

"It's competent to put a young girl in some idiotic test that does nothing but put her in danger?"

"That test is a vital part of the Councils history!"

"And completely pointless!"

"I will not stand here and allow some…boy to dictate to me what the proper etiquette is for training a Slayer. It's obvious that Mr. Giles has given you lot far too much leniency, something I plan on changing."

Before he knew it, Xander was in motion. He hadn't meant it, but the way Wesley had spoken about Giles, about Buffy and Faith, had his emotions going out of control. He had been able to control himself at first, but the more Wesley talked, the shorter Xander's patience became. Now as he blinked back his surprise, he realized that he was twisting Wesley's arm behind his back and forcing him to the floor.

Giles calmly walked back into the living room, drying his hands on a dish towel, as he watched. "Xander, would kindly let Wesley up? I think it's time that he left and it would be rather hard for him to do that with you holding his arm like that."

Letting go, Xander took a few steps back, breathing deeply to get his emotions under control. Slowly, the new Watcher got to his feet. His face was hard to read, a mixture of emotions that he was trying to mask at the same time.

"Whatever you say about me or my methods is fine. However, the moment you dare to call into question what these people are capable of, what they are willing to do to make sure that _Buffy _and _Faith_ have every tool available to them I will make certain that it is that last thing you ever say to them. Are we clear?" Giles tone was even but there was no denying the edge only slightly hidden underneath.

Wesley, perhaps too embarrassed by being taken down by someone he viewed as being less than a threat, didn't say anything. He looked embarrassed but, more than that, he seemed ashamed of what had happened. Opening his mouth to speak, Wesley closed it after seeing the looks on Giles' face. With a small nod of his head, Wesley straightened his jacket and left, shutting the door behind him.

Once he was sure that Wesley had left, Xander turned to Giles with a quirked eyebrow. "Giles…I'm sorry. I didn't mean…"

"It's fine," Giles told him. "I'm more concerned if you're alright though."

Xander shook his head, clearing his mind and trying to focus on the situation. "I'm good. Just…no, I'm alright. So, who the hell was that guy?"

"An extremely good reason to lift the Councils 'No Killing Human's' ban," Giles spat. Shaking his head, he added, "I apologize, Xander. It was unfair of me to throw you in there as I did."

"I'm still not sure what _that_ was! I mean, sure you got axed, but aren't you still on their side?"

Sighing, Giles rubbed the bridge of his nose. "That was the Council's response to my termination. Chosen specifically, as you put it, because of his age."

"I wasn't joking back there, Giles. Well, OK, I was, but still. You told me that Watchers have to go through training and years and years of more training before they would be given a Slayer to train."

"Normally, that would be the case. The youngest Watcher to ever be given a bloody potential was thirty-five. Wesley, in all of his infinite years of experience, is ten years younger than that."

"OK, so why the change? You Brits running out of old stuffy guys to send out?" Xander remarked following Giles as he went back into the kitchen.

"One thing the Council doesn't lack is old men." Pulling on a pair of oven mitts, Giles busied himself with removing a pan from the oven. "No, the reason why Wesley was picked has to do with two simple reasons. One, his father has a bit more influence than most. But mainly it's due to his youth and lack of real world experience. He's hasn't been out of the Watcher's Academy for more than a year. He completely and totally believes that the Council can do no wrong."

Xander took that in and said solemnly, "He's a believer."

"Yes, precisely."

"He's a bit...hot-headed for a Watcher, isn't he?"

"That, I'm afraid, was my fault." Turning off the oven, Giles nodded to the cabinet for Xander to get out some plates. "Before you had come in, Wesley had stopped by to pick up some papers and journals. He noticed some of the clothing you left out - I've told you before not to leave your things lying about - and that prompted him to start asking questions. The prat actually had the nerve to accuse me of...well, never mind what he accused me of. Things progressed from that point rather quickly."

Nodding, Xander said, "Ah. So when I came in he was already set to fight mode."

Carrying everything to the table, both men sat down and started filling their plates with food. "I can't help but notice that you were rather quick to fight back there as well. I thought the meditation was helping you with your impulse control?"

"It was. It _is_," Xander told him. "Just had a lot on my mind before I got here. Plus, I wasn't exactly expecting that _bun tyen-shung duh ee-dway-ro._"

"I take it that I'd rather not know what you called him?"

Grinning sheepishly, Xander quickly put a fork full off the Cottage Pie in his mouth. Giles had gotten used to Xander's occasional slip into Chinese, usually when he had something not very nice to say. This was another little problem that he had started to have since his awakening as the Avatar. His brain would sometimes switch from thinking in English to thinking in Chinese. For him, it was fine. He understood both but if he didn't catch himself, he would end up starting a conversation in Chinese and get looked at like a freak. It had happened a few times when he was in class, which had embarrassed him when he realized his mistake. It wasn't as bad as the times when he would compare things to the animals and people in the Avatar's dimension, but still awkward.

"Still," Giles said between bites, "I was impressed by how quickly you took him down."

"Hmm? Oh, that wasn't much of anything. I didn't even realize I was doing it until I had him on the floor."

"You said that you were preoccupied before. Everything alright?" Giles asked looking concerned.

Shrugging, Xander took a few more bites before speaking. Dropping his fork onto the plate with a clatter, he sighed before meeting Giles' eyes. "I'm stuck. I've hit the proverbial brick wall when it comes to training, Giles. I've nearly mastered Airbending. Well, I think I actually have mastered it. I really should be starting on Waterbending, but that's not going to happen!"

"Still having issues with accessing your other, er, abilities? Your other worldly knowledge isn't offering any more help than before, I take it?"

Shaking his head, Xander said, "The moves are all there but something's missing. I showed you how many of the forms from all of the bending arts? My body knows what to do, but it's as if there's something blocking my brain when it comes to making the connection to the actual elements. I've tried meditating, clearing my chakras, nothing works, though."

"You remember the training that Aang went through, correct? Could it be that there's something that you've forgotten, perhaps?"

"I've thought that but how do you know if you've forgotten something that you didn't know in the first place?"

Nodding, Giles used his fork to push his food around. "Quite right. It would be unlikely that you would have remembered everything except that anyway. The amount of martial arts knowledge that you have now really is astonishing. Have you given any thoughts to Buffy's question, by the way?"

It took Xander a moment to realize what it was that Giles was talking about, but finally it clicked. Buffy had been bugging him for the past week to spar with her, half strength for his benefit, of course. She had walked in one afternoon when Giles had been watching him go through some of his forms, looking to see if there was any connection between the movements he knew and anything in their reality. According to Giles, the movements for bending matched up with several different forms of Kung Fu, as well as Tai Chi and Ba Gua, whatever the hell that was. The second Buffy had seen him move, her Slayer side had taken over and she wanted to pit herself against him. Needless to say, Xander was a tad bit hesitant.

"I don't know. I know that Buffy is really aiming for it, but...well, come on. Do you look forward to getting your butt kicked every time you spar with her?"

Chuckling slightly, Giles replied, "No, I suppose not. However, I think it would be good for both your sakes. You've been saying that aside from your inability to use the other elements, you're also getting no real combat practice. Other than patrols, you don't have anyone that you can go up against to keep your skills sharp. I'm not suggesting that you and Buffy go at each other at full strength, but surely each of you could use a bit more force with one another."

"And Buffy? What does she get out of it besides a bruised and broken Xander?"

Giles face grew more serious at this point. "Buffy is a remarkable young woman and an amazing fighter. That being said, her greatest strength is also her greatest weakness. All Slayers have th-this independent streak in them. They feel invulnerable, given their strength and speed, and as such, they commonly attack problems head on, barreling through any problem they come across. Their fighting style, especially Buffy's and, as far as I can see, Faith's as well, exhibit this."

"All brawn, no finesse," Xander said with a nod of his head.

"My point exactly. You, however, have a much different approach, even without your Airbending. Ba Gua, the, uh, martial arts you use for Airbending, is a soft martial arts, much more of an internal form. To be honest, I think that Buffy might be hard pressed when it comes to fighting something like that.

"At this point, I think that anything she can use to help her would be most welcome. Especially with the Council coming in and attempting to take over, and I honestly fear what they might do."

"Attempting, huh? Planning on a little non-violent protest?"

"Only if he's lucky," Giles replied with an annoyed frown. Running a hand through his hair, Giles sighed. "I'm afraid I haven't made tonight's meal quite that appetizing, have I?"

"Speak for yourself," Xander said, pulling the plate back in front of him.

Chuckling, Giles stood up and bought his dish inside. "It's too bad, really."

"What is?" Xander said through a full mouth.

"That you couldn't simply speak to Aang again. Perhaps he would have been able to offer you more assistance. There's a chance he may have experienced something similar when he was learning the elements as well."

The fork stopped halfway to Xander's mouth. It was so simple, so damn simple that it had been staring him in the face the whole time but, instead, he'd been unable to see it. He was too busy trying to do it all on his own, assuming that there was no one to help him. Being the Avatar was about more than simply having mastery over the four elements, though, it was a spiritual matter, as well. He was connected to the Spirit World, the bridge between the worlds. Why couldn't he talk to Aang again? Hell, why couldn't he talk to any of the past Avatars? As the Avatar, it should be a piece of cake – well, in theory, anyway.

"I'm gonna need somewhere special," Xander said. His eyes had grown wide with excitement as the idea began to take form in his mind.

"I'm sorry?" Giles asked coming back in with a perplexed look on his face.

Standing up excitedly, Xander began to pace back and forth. "If I'm going to talk to Aang, I'm going to need some place special. Some place...spiritual. Not religious spiritual, I don't think, anyway. After all, how many churches are really all that spiritual? No, this has gotta be somewhere different. Some place where the barriers to the Spirit World would be weak."

Giles watched the young man pace back and force, talking almost to himself. "Xander, slow down for a moment," he said calmly. "What are you going on about?"

Grinning madly, Xander wiggled his eyebrows. "It's time to seek out some spiritual guidance, Giles."

"Are you sure about this?" Giles asked again.

"Honestly? Not at all," Xander said as he and Giles continued to push furniture out from the middle of the floor. "But this is the best I can come up with. If you have a better idea, I'm all for it."

Apprehensiveness showed on Giles face but he didn't say anything. Xander's revelation last night had driven both of them to stay up till late into the night going over possible locations for his attempt to contact Aang through the Spirit World.

It had come as something of a surprise to the ex-Watcher when Xander had explained it all to him. They had certainly spoken, in great detail, about what it meant for Xander to be the Avatar, but it was something that Giles couldn't grasp at times. The manipulation of the four elements was easy to believe. He had seen Xander control air and he knew of others who could do the same, albeit through magic. But when it came to this whole _'Bridge between the Spirit World'_ thing, he was at a loss. Not for lack of trying on his part, but there were some parts of what Xander talked about that didn't seem to make much sense to him.

At first, the Englishman had thought it might just be a title of some sort, an honorary perhaps. It was far more than that, he understood that after a while, but it still wasn't something that was easily definable to him. Xander had tried the best he could to describe it and had determined that the easiest way would be in an old form of Mandarin that Giles simply couldn't understand. It wasn't as if Xander could speak to the dead or control ghosts or any such thing. No, it was more to do with the other world where the Avatar originated from, with the spirits of that world. But these spirits of that world weren't exactly dead. If anything, they seemed very much alive.

Giles had every confidence in Xander when it came to these abilities – now, anyway. He only wished that they had been able to come up with a place that wasn't right over the opening to the Hellmouth.

"Are you certain that there isn't a better place? Perhaps a nuclear test site or somewhere a tad bit safer?" Giles asked as they set down the last table.

"Wow, look at you making with the funny. I told you I'd rub off on you sooner or later," Xander joked.

"Just make sure you lock me away if I start wearing those God awful shirts of yours."

"Hey!"

"I'm serious, Xander. Are you certain that doing, well, _this_ on top of the Hellmouth is the safest of things?"

"Safe? No," Xander admitted. "But it is my best shot of being able to get through. There aren't many places here that have any kind of connection with the Spirit World. I'm not strong enough or well versed enough to crossover to the Spirit World on my own. I need some place like this. You said it yourself, this place is where the barrier is at its weakest."

"It just seems rather risky, wouldn't you say?"

"Well, if I go all glowy and start releasing a maelstrom in the library or opening up the Hellmouth, just shoot me."

Picking up the tranquilizer gun from the book counter, Giles nodded to him. "Quite right."

Laughing nervously, Xander eyed the gun in Giles hand. "You know, a paranoid person might think that you'd shoot him just to get back at him."

"Now, Xander, would I do something like that?" Giles said with an evil glint in his eyes. "You did remember to wash and dry all of the dishes this morning, didn't you?"

"Yes?" Xander squeaked.

"Well, then you have nothing to be worried about."

Hefting the gun, Giles grew more serious. Nodding to Xander, he watched as he walked to the center of the room and began to relax his body. A few moments later, Xander sat down, closed his eyes, joined his fists in front of his body and took steady, even breaths.

They may have been joking about it, but they agreed that the tranquilizer gun was a necessary precaution. They had no way of knowing how Xander reaching out to the Spirit World may affect the mystical energies of the Hellmouth. At best, nothing would happen - at least, not in regards to the Hellmouth. Worst case scenario...well, it was best not to think like that. Xander had told him some things that he could expect to happen but if anything started to look like it was too much, Giles was ready to take him down. He only hoped that if it did come to that, they could trust the dart to work properly - if he was even able to hit him, that is. They still weren't aware of what compound Wolfram and Hart had used to take him out or why it had worn off after such a short amount of time. If it was some protection the Avatar gave him, they wouldn't know what kind of reaction a normal tranquilizer dart would have on him.

A few minutes passed and nothing happened. Xander had warned that that was a possibility. This was his first attempt doing this and he was only grasping at straws. Though the more he talked about it, the more Xander seemed to realize that he did know what to do. Almost as if he had all of the knowledge about how to go about it, but performing the task itself was like anything else one did. He needed practice if he was ever going to be able to do it without much difficulty.

Giles was ready to ask him if everything was all right when the doors to the library swung open, startling both men.

"Whoa, calm down," Buffy said. "Didn't mean to scare you guys." Looking around at Xander sitting crossed legged on the floor and Giles holding the tranquilizer gun, she raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"I can assure you that there's a perfectly good reason for this," Giles told her.

"And that would be...?" the blonde girl asked slowly.

"Well, uh, you see.." Giles began but seemed at a loss as to how to begin explaining it to Buffy.

"I'm trying to cross into the Spirit World so I can talk to Aang and get him to explain to me why I can't bend the other elements," Xander said matter-of-factly.

"Uh...yes, right." Giles said.

Looking confused for a moment, Buffy nodded her head towards the gun. "Expecting something to come back with you?"

"Better safe than sorry. Hellmouth plus me plus anything generally equals messy," Xander told her.

Buffy looked between Xander and Giles for a moment, walked over to the weapons cabinet and came back holding a long sword. Jumping up onto one of the tables, she sat down and leaned back a bit. "Alright, but after you've done that, we're having a conversation about not telling me about this stuff sooner, mister."

Giles heard the hurt and concern that Buffy had in her voice. It was hidden, but he knew her well enough to make it out. He should have known that Buffy would have felt this way when she found out about it, but frankly, both he and Xander had been so wrapped up in planning and going over everything for this morning that he hadn't even thought about it. That they hadn't included her in this had certainly hurt her, though she was handling it better than he expected. Oh, she would let both of them know exactly how she felt later but for now she was letting it be. She certainly was growing up, he noted with a bit of parental pride.

Xander resumed his meditative position. Several minutes passed again. Giles was fairly sure that Buffy was nearing the end of how long she could sit and watch but, again, she surprised him by continuing to stay still. He would never be able to say how long she could have stayed like that, though, since once again, the door to the library swung open, disturbing everyone.

"I swear, it's a wonder why I even bother to put that blasted sign up at all," Giles muttered to himself as he watched Willow walk in.

Like Buffy, the young witch looked at Xander, Giles holding the tranquilizer gun and, this time, Buffy sitting with a sword. Unlike Buffy, Willow seemed at a loss for words and blinked rapidly and tried to find her voice.

"Avatar stuff," Buffy said simply, much to the relief of Xander, and motioned for the still stunned girl to join her.

Giles shook his head and, for the third time, readied the gun against his shoulder. By his count, that was everyone who might wander in this early in the day and who would ignore the 'Closed for Re-Shelving' sign he had placed in the hallway.

Growing slightly bored himself, Giles chanced a look towards Buffy and Willow only to find that both girls where whispering rather loudly back and forth. From what he could hear, both were speculating on what was going on and also why neither one of them had been informed. The conversation was getting louder and if it was distracting him, then surely it must be doing the same to Xander. Before he was able to quietly chastise the girls, Xander's eyes snapped open.

"Will you two _please_ be quiet? A little peace and _silence_ isn't a lot to ask for. I'm only trying to contact the _Spirit World_, after all!" Grunting in frustration, Xander closed his eyes again and went back to his breathing, though it was much heavier this time around.

It was hard to conceal the smile that was tugging at his lips but Giles managed it. Both Buffy and Willow looked shocked that Xander had yelled at them and immediately shut their mouths. Like Buffy, and Willow as well, Xander had grown by leaps and bounds in the past. He wished that he hadn't been as forced as he had been, no one should have to deal with what life had thrown at him, but the boy had done so better than most could.

Once again, silence filled the library. This time, however, no one barged through the doors interrupting anything. Glancing at the clock, Giles was starting to think that they might have to stop for now and try again later. The rest of the students should be arriving at the school soon and classes would be starting soon after. It would only be a matter of time before some other student or faculty member came by and Giles was fairly certain that it would be far harder to explain the situation to them. In hindsight, Giles should have expected something to happen at that exact moment.

Xander's head snapped forward as his closed eyes stared straight ahead. Everyone watching tensed not knowing exactly what was going to happen. Slowly, his eyes opened but instead of the deep brown eyes that they would expect to see, Xander's eyes were filled with the bright blue-white light that Giles had seen the first morning when Xander had transformed into Aang. Other than the light, nothing else happened and after a few more moments, Giles breathed a sigh of relief.

Resting the gun back onto the book counter, Giles said, "Well, I believe that's it for the moment. All we can do now is wait."

"So he's...in that Spirit World place?" Willow asked.

"He said that if all went according to plan, this would happen, so…yes."

Buffy jumped off the table and slowly walked around Xander, staring at him in wonder. "So, he's just...gone?" Waving her hand in front of his glowing eyes, she added, "That is so freaky."

"Um, please, if you would, Buffy, refrain from that," Giles told her.

Instantly. Buffy jumped back from Xander's still form. "Why? Can I hurt him or something?"

"No, not that I'm aware of. Just…don't." Giles wasn't sure if anything could disrupt Xander's trance like state but it was best not to tempt fate. "Now, I'm not sure how long this is going to last, Xander wasn't quite clear on that. The best thing we can do at the moment is to keep him safe and away from anyone else."

"Giles," Willow said. "I think it might be a little late for that."

Giles furrowed his eyebrows watching as she stared at the library doors. Following her gaze, Giles turned and found Wesley standing just inside the room, mouth hanging open. The bright light from Xander's eyes cast a glow on the young Watcher. Not for the first time, Giles cursed the fact that there wasn't a way to lock those doors and swore that he'd nail them shut if he had to.

Opening his eyes, Xander looked around, finding himself back in the Spirit World. It wasn't the same place he had been in before, though. This time around, the area seemed a lot darker, creepier. As he stood up and got a good look around, he couldn't help but feel as if he was being watched. The area he was sitting in was clear of anything except dried out grass and patches of earth where the grass had simply died outright. Surrounding that clear space was what Xander could only describe as a swamp.

Oh, it looked like a swamp, sure. The trees were low hanging, thick muddy water rose high above the ground, stopping just outside of the clearing, and there was muggy, hot foul smelling air coming off it. If that wasn't enough, there was the smell of dying and decaying plants and, if Xander wasn't mistaken, something that smelled a lot more animal-like than plant like. It definitely looked like a typical spooky swamp on the surface but something was off about it. A feeling he got that he wasn't able to put his finger on. It was more than just a swamp, Xander was sure of that. What else it was, though, was eluding him.

"It's evil."

Turning, Xander saw Aang standing at the other side of the clearing, looking solemn.

"That's what you're feeling," Aang told him stepping forward. "This part of the Spirit World, it's evil."

"Guess I probably should have known that," Xander said sheepishly. "Been around evil long enough that you'd think I would be able tell it when I smell it. Didn't think you'd be one to say something was completely evil, though. What about balance?"

"People aren't evil, not completely. Everyone has a mixture of both good and evil in them, even if it's not in balance. The concept, though, is very real. This place is the closest I've ever come to seeing it."

Aang grew quiet, continuing to look past Xander, out into the swamp. Finally, he shook his head and greeted Xander with a giant grin. Bowing, hands clasped in front of him, Aang said, "Greetings, Avatar Alexander."

Mimicking his movements, Xander greeted him the same way. "And you, Avatar Aang."

"Never been on the receiving end of one of these things," Aang told him. "It was kind of weird, like a tingling in the back of my head."

"Huh. Is that how Roku and the other Avatar's felt whenever you needed to ask them for help?" Xander asked.

Aang shrugged. "I don't know. Most of the time, they called me. Also, you know, they were all dead for at least a hundred years before I spoke with them."

"Yeah, good point." Xander stopped and took a good look at Aang. "You've grown."

This time it was Aang who looked slightly sheepish. "Yeah, finally hit my growth spurt. Took me long enough. You look...different."

"It's only been a month but trust me, things have...changed."

"A month?" Aang cried. "What do you mean it's only been a month? I haven't seen you in over a year!"

"What are you talking about?"

"When we explained to you what happened, what Yue and I did, that was over a year ago."

Both boys looked at each other strangely. Yue had explained that there would be a time difference between their worlds but it seemed as if it couldn't make up its mind as to which world was going to move forward faster than the other. In the end, both of them simply shrugged and chalked it up to the strangeness that was the Spirit World. Xander also had a sinking suspicion that the Hellmouth and the magical energies of his world also played a part in it but didn't voice his opinion to Aang. At the moment, it didn't mean much except that it could lead to a lot of confusion.

"So," Aang said, standing up taller. "How can I assist you?"

Xander couldn't suppress the smirk that made its way onto his face. Aang was a fully realized Avatar and, as such, he was much more knowledgeable than himself. Still, he was a thirteen, no, fourteen, year old kid. But, he still knew more than Xander and was the preceding Avatar. But to see him with his chest sticking out and trying to look all knowing made Xander laugh a bit.

"I've come into a little problem with my training," Xander told him, not bothering to cover up his smile.

"Taking longer than you thought, huh? Don't get discouraged, not every Avatar learns the elements as fast as I did."

"Oh, that's fine with me. I wouldn't mind if it was taking a long time, I'm worried more about the fact that I can't _learn_ the other bending arts because there's no one to learn them from."

Aang scrunched up his face, thinking about the problem. "Hmm, that's a first."

"What do you mean that's a first? Of course it's a first! This whole thing never happened before!" Xander cried out in frustration.

"There really isn't a single person out there that knows about bending? Man, how do you guys get anything done?"

"Can we focus here? How am I supposed to learn Waterbending, or learn anything, if I don't have a master?"

Aang continued to look puzzled and started to pace. "I have no idea. Yue said that you should have known everything that I knew, including how to bend all of the elements."

"Yeah, well Moon girl was wrong," Xander told him. "Airbending is the only thing I have down. I can run circles around anything I come across, literally. You want gale force wind, I'm your guy. A mini tornado? Sure thing. But I can't even get a twitch out of the other elements."

"Are you sure that you're doing it right?" Aang asked. "Proper technique is important in the beginning. If you don't do it just right, you'll never get the hang of it."

"Yeah, I know that," Xander grumbled. "But how am I supposed to know if I'm doing it right when I don't have anyone to teach me? I have someone who's helping me but all he can do is compare it against stuff we have in my world."

"That's going to get confusing," Aang muttered shaking his head. "I don't know, Xander. This isn't exactly something any Avatar has ever had to deal with before. There's always been someone to help teach the Avatar each of the bending arts. Even the first Avatar had the Giant Sea Turtles to help get him going."

"So, what? You're saying that I'm stuck like this? How can I be the Avatar if I can't bend anything other than air?"

"Being the Avatar is more than being able to bend, Xander."

"I know, I know. But how am I supposed to help people, to start trying to keep balance and protect the world if I can't be a fully realized Avatar? We both know that I'll never get to that level if I can't master the elements."

"No, you're right. It's important to be able to control the elements. As the Avatar, you can't bring balance to the world if you can't bring balance to yourself."

"Get that from Roku?" Xander asked grinning.

"Guru Pathik," Aang replied. He stopped pacing and looked closely at Xander. "There's something else, isn't there? Something you're not saying?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't know," Aang admitted after a moment. "There's just...there's something that's bothering you, I can sense it."

Xander couldn't deny what he was saying, but it was creepy that Aang was able to pick up on it. Maybe it was something with being the Avatar and how they were connected. Or maybe he just wasn't that good at hiding it here. "Ty Lee been giving you lessons with reading auras?" he joked.

Smiling, Aang shook his head. "She's too busy with...other things. But, really, what is it? For all you know, whatever it is could be blocking your chakras, keeping you from moving forward."

He had to admit, it made sense. There was something bothering him, eating him up inside, but could it really be the reason why he hadn't been able to do any other form of bending other than air? Giles wasn't aware that he had been plagued with nightmares since the death of his parents, so it wasn't as if he could have suggested it. It wasn't even as if he was devastated by their deaths - not _their_ deaths anyway. Xander had long ago separated himself from his parents emotionally. Yes, he still loved them but it was a child's love for his parents and what they should have represented, not for who they actually were. It was that love that had made him want to help them in the first place. He would never get that chance though, not now. Wolfram and Hart had seen to that.

Still, it wasn't really his parents' deaths that were bothering him. It was what it represented to him. He had made them a target by being who he was now. Would it continue to be that way from now on? Were Buffy, Willow, and Giles in danger because he was the Avatar? He couldn't simply stop being the Avatar. It was who he was now. It was something beyond a title, beyond the power that came with it. He could no more cease being the Avatar then Buffy or Faith could stop being the Slayer. So where did that leave him and his friends then?

Running a hand through his hair, Xander let out a breath of air and tried to think of how to start.

"Something happened, didn't it? Something bad," Aang said quietly.

"How do you do it? How do you put up with constantly being in danger because you're the Avatar?" Xander asked him suddenly.

"It's the way it is," Aang said simply. "One thing that I've learned is, life is dangerous. People don't get along and most of the time they fight for stupid reasons. I can't change that, but I can do my best to keep as much peace as possible and to help however I can. From what I know about you, it isn't as if your life was easy to begin with. You didn't just have people coming after you. You had...things that wanted to kill you. Most of the time you put yourself in harm's way."

"That's different," Xander said dismissively. "Those were life or death situations."

"In other words, you thought it was your duty to protect people. What do you think the Avatar does? Keeping the peace between people prevents wars from breaking out, keeping the Spirit World in balance with the physical world, it saves lives."

"And people will do anything to keep you out of the way sometimes, huh?"

Hearing the bitterness in his voice, Aang lowered his head sadly. "It's not fair. We didn't ask to be who we are, but one thing Monk Gyatso taught me is that destiny seldom ask your permission before it does what it needs to. If destiny said that you were meant to be the Avatar, then it has a good reason."

It was humbling to hear those words and for some reason, since they had come from Aang, they held more weight than if someone else would have said them. A lump formed in Xander's throat, but instead of feeling sad or angry, he simply felt tired. Closing his eyes, Xander said, "They came after my family."

Aang's eyes grew wide with understanding. He stood and listened as Xander explained what had happened. The attack by Wolfram and Hart and how Xander had gone after the two men that tried to escape, possibly killing them. No one had found out for sure since the men had been transferred to a hospital in Los Angeles, but the crash had been quite a mess and Xander told Aang that he doubted they had survived long afterwards. It took some time for Xander to give him a rundown of all of the month's events, as well as his feelings about everything that had happened in the short amount of time, but when he was finished, he felt slightly lighter. The pain, confusion and frustration were still present, but they no longer felt as if they were going to eat away at him.

To his relief, Aang didn't try to make him feel better. He didn't berate him for using what could be considered lethal force with his Airbending, but he didn't try to tell him that it was nothing to be upset over. Instead, Aang explained to him how he had felt over the destruction of the Air Nomads, about how angry he had been over it. It made Xander feel a bit stupid for being so upset over the loss of just his parents while Aang had to deal with the loss of his entire people, but the older –relatively, anyway- Avatar had told him that it didn't matter how many people he lost, he still suffered.

They spoke about a few different topics from there, exchanging stories from their past. Aang even caught Xander up with a few things that had gone on between his friends and had admitted, much to Xander's teasing, that he and Katara were continuing their relationship and that things were looking up.

Neither knew how much time had passed, as it wasn't as if there was any sun in the Spirit World that they could judge time by, but they soon found themselves much more relaxed.

"I think I have a solution to your problem," Aang told him.

"Oh, and what's that?"

"You need a master to teach you, so all we have to do is get you a master."

"Well, if that's all we need to do then," Xander replied sarcastically.

"I mean it," Aang said excitedly.

"Alright then, Mister Optimistic, where am I supposed to find a master Water, Earth, and Firebender when there aren't any benders in my dimension, huh?"

Standing tall, Aang puffed out his chest. "Me!"

"Planning on crossing over for a little vacation?" Xander asked. "Somehow, I don't think that's going to work."

"Well, no, not exactly. But you need a master. We can do it right here!" Aang started moving around, talking enthusiastically. "It's perfect! No one will bother us here and we can meet at any time. We won't have to worry about finding some place safe to practice since there's nothing here to destroy."

"One problem, oh great Avatar," Xander told him. "This is the Spirit World. Unless I'm forgetting something, there's no bending in here."

"Sure, not _normally_," Aang said. "But I'm sure the universe wouldn't have given us such a great place to practice and not let us bend. Watch!"

Flourishing his hands, Aang struck out with both palms in what Xander recognized as move meant to create a gust of dispersed air. For a moment, Xander actually thought that Aang might be on to something, only nothing happened.

Aang stood there for a moment before standing normally again. "OK, maybe the universe isn't that helpful."

"Gee, you think?"

"Still, that changes nothing," Aang said brightly. "You don't need to bend to learn how to bend."

"That was supposed to make sense, right?"

"Bending is all about knowing the element, knowing how it feels, how it moves. The movements just help you get in touch with that."

"So...just because I can do the moves doesn't mean I know how to bend?" Xander asked.

"Hey, it's worth a shot."

Xander stared at Aang, considering what he said. After a moment, he shrugged his shoulders and said, "Alright, so what's first, Sifu Aang?"

When Xander opened his eyes again, he found himself in the library right where he had been. Slowly, he stretched his legs out, letting the blood flow back into them. Nobody was around him, which he took as a good sign. If anything had gone wrong on this end he doubted that they would have left him alone without anyone watching over him. Judging by where the sunlight was in the library, Xander gathered that it was late afternoon which meant that he had been in his meditative trance for the whole day. No wonder he was so sore.

Getting up, he felt the stiffness in his legs wear away, as well as the familiar pressure on his bladder. The biggest downside to going into the Spirit World, according to Xander, was its lack of bathrooms. With some care, he made his way over to the office and was surprised at the sight in front of him.

Giles was sitting at his desk, going over some books, which was normal. Buffy was standing in the corner holding a short sword lazily in one hand. While kind of odd it wasn't exactly out of the ordinary. However, in the corner nearest Buffy, tied to a chair and gagged, was a slightly rumpled looking Wesley. This was by far strange all on its own, but the fact that he was glaring daggers at Xander kicked the weirdness and confusion meter up a few notches.

"Ah, Xander," Giles said looking up from his books. "You're awake. How did everything go?"

"Uh...fine, I think," Xander said slowly. "Hey, crazy question here, but why is Wesley tied up like that?" Before Giles could respond, Xander made a pained expression and cut him off. "You know what, hold that thought."

Running as fast as he could get away with, Xander headed for the bathroom. Whatever it was with Wesley could wait till after he was finished.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Alright, a big thanks to Greywizard for helping beta-ing (It's a word now, deal with it). To everyone that reviewed, thanks. They really do speed up the process. Well, on with the story. This chapter is a little smaller than the rest but it begins to show what's up with Lindsey. Hope you guys enjoy and as always, let me know what you think.

Chapter 6

The white walls of the hospital room stared back at Lindsey.

He had been laid up in the private room for over a month, healing broken bones and other injuries he had sustained from that night with the Harris kid. Whatever his body couldn't do on its own, doctors had seen to and whatever the doctors couldn't...well, Wolfram and Hart certainly had an interesting health plan. None of that mattered, though. This was the last day that he was going to be spending in this damn bed, locked away from the rest of the world. He was being released with a clean bill of health from the doctors and only a few minor issues that couldn't be seen to. He'd deal with the aches and pains just fine, he didn't care about them right now. By his count, he had a few scores to settle and the sooner he could do that, the better.

It still amazed him what had happened. After the car crash caused by the bastard, Harris, he had woken up in the emergency room of Sunnydale General handcuffed to a bed. The local cops had arrested him pending an investigation into the events of that night. Manners had been taken into custody as well though he hadn't been admitted. The man must have had an angel on his shoulder that night. Well, more like a devil. One phone call to Holland and Lindsey had been cut loose from the cops and transferred to a private hospital that Wolfram and Hart had ties to, his name kept secret and strictly confidential, Holland's eyes only. Of course, that might not mean anything since part of being an employee at the firm was finding out things people tried to keep hidden, but it seemed to work. No one bothered or came after him the whole time he was in there.

The time on his back was spent going over everything that had happened, everything that had gone wrong. Holland never visited him, (And who could blame him, really) but he had sent over all of the documents that Lindsey had requested through a secure line. The drug that they had used was supposed to keep the kid paralyzed for six hours. No one had any explanation as to why it wore off in a little over five minutes, but word was that the R and D department had combined the normal paralytic with a mystical one to give it more potency. That whole department was now being re-staffed and redecorated. It was always easier to remodel than it was to scrub blood out of walls and floors.

A team had been sent in to keep tabs on Harris as well as the Slayers. The information was, again, Holland's eyes only. The issue with the Slayers was another monumental screw up. No one had any idea that there were two of them running around, let alone that both were in Sunnydale. The Slayer was always just one person, one girl. No one could have guessed that there could have been two of them. Of course, that didn't stop Holland from finding someone to blame and there was currently one more opening in Special Projects.

Flipping through the reports that he knew almost well enough to recite, Lindsey went over it all, again. Not just the events from that night, but everything they had on both Harris and the Avatar. Most of the stuff on Harris was basic information along with a few bits about his exploits after meeting the Slayer. What they had on the Avatar was even less substantial. Most of it was stories and legends written in various Asian languages that had to be translated several times. All in all, there wasn't a lot there but Lindsey would be damned if he would miss anything. He had already filled two notebooks with theories and ideas on how to either best go after Harris or how to get more information on the Avatar.

There was no mistaking it, Lindsey was driven. When he had first taken the assignment, what seemed like ages ago, he had thought it just another job, a way of moving up in the firm faster than he could have imagined but nothing more than that. Now, it was so much more. It was all he thought about, all he wanted. He dreamt of putting his hands around Harris's neck and squeezing every last bit of life out of him. After the firm got what they needed from him of course.

He had felt bad for the kid when he first met him. They had a similar upbringing, the same poor family and parents that were too drunk to really provide for them. The difference was that Lindsey had done something with himself while Harris had been heading for either the same fate as his parents or working a string of dead end jobs and being worthless. Hell, if this thing with the Avatar hadn't come along, Lindsey doubted that the kid would have done anything meaningful with his life except get himself killed by some vampire that the Slayer was fighting.

A knock at the door brought Lindsey out of his thoughts.

"Sir," Lindsey said sitting up straight in the bed as he watched Holland Manners enter his room. "I wasn't expecting to see you."

Holland smiled at Lindsey. "Well, I thought with you being released today, it was the least I could do. After all, you did save my life."

"Just doing my job, sir."

"Oh, we both know that isn't true," Holland told him closing the door. "There, we should have a bit more privacy. Rooms are enchanted to keep anyone from listening in. Wonderful little spell. The firm won't spend the money to do the offices, though. Cyvus Vail's services do not come cheap."

"Hard to believe they spent the money on a hospital, isn't?"

"Oh, well it wasn't always a hospital. Back in the early nineteen hundreds, this whole building was a system of interrogation rooms that were later decommissioned in the nineteen-fifties. Budget cuts."

Lindsey nodded his head slowly. It was slightly uncomfortable to know that where he was lying was only secure because no one wanted anyone to hear the firm torturing people, or rather, they didn't want anyone hearing whatever information they were getting.

"You seem to be doing quite well though. Doctors say you've made a full recovery," Holland said before glancing down at Lindsey's leg. "Well, almost. It's a real shame about the leg. The shaman said that by the time we got you transferred, there wasn't much that could be done about it."

Rubbing his right leg unconsciously, Lindsey frowned. The leg had been pinned between his seat and the front dashboard of the van. He'd walk with a permanent limp for the rest of his life, as well as leave him with a nasty scar. It was one more reason to hate Harris.

"Doc says I'm lucky to keep it. If it had been any longer, the lack of blood would have made them have to cut it off," Lindsey said distantly.

Holland smiled his tight, cold smile again, nodding his head. "I see you've been keeping busy, though. I don't suppose you've found anything useful in there, hmm?"

Lindsey was tempted to tell him about his ideas, but instead kept his mouth shut. It was always best to keep things close to the chest when dealing with anyone from Wolfram and Hart - especially your superiors. "Nothing much, sir. A few things that I'll be following up on, but I don't know if any of it will pan out. But don't worry, sir. We'll get Harris and nail his ass to the wall, trust me."

"Actually, Lindsey, that's what I'm here to talk to you about," Holland said slowly. "This whole...Avatar thing, it's gotten more complicated than I would have liked."

"Sir, don't tell me you're abandoning the project!" Lindsey exclaimed.

"No, I'm not. I'll get the Avatar, in time. But, you see, the last time brought more attention than I could afford. Certain...people started digging into it, people that I would rather didn't know anything till it was too late. It means that I'll have to be more careful with this, play things out a bit differently, you understand."

"You mean you want me to hold back on Harris? Bide our time?" Lindsey asked.

Shaking his head, Holland replied, "No, what I'm saying is that I don't want you anywhere near Alexander Harris, Lindsey."

"You're, what? Reassigning me?"

"Well, I can't very well reassign someone who doesn't work for the firm, can I?"

Lindsey's eyes went wide with the realization of what Holland meant. "You're cutting me loose?"

"Lindsey, don't act so surprised. You understood what was at stake here. After all, it was your idea to leave the firm, wasn't it? I can't very well welcome you back with open arms, not with how you left." Holland continued. "You understood the risks, Lindsey. You made yourself an enemy of the firm when you left. This little trip to hospital, the false name, the shaman doctors, well, consider it my way of saying thank you for your dedication."

Holland waited a moment for Lindsey to respond, but when he received none, he nodded his head and reached for the door.

"Oh, if I were you, Lindsey," he said as he paused in the doorway, "I'd consider leaving the city before nightfall. The state, if you can. It seems as if the firm received a tip on someone matching your description being in the city."

Without another word, Holland left, closing the door behind him. Lindsey stared down at the file in his hands, the file of the person who had taken everything from him. Harris had taken his job, his future, all in one night. With a growl of anger, Lindsey threw the papers against the wall.

It was all gone. How? How in hell did he go from having everything he had ever wanted to having nothing at all?

_November 1__st__, 1997_

Lindsey watched Holland as he sat at the head of the conference table. To the untrained eye, it looked as if he was listening to the briefing with the utmost interest. After all, it was his job to pay attention to his underling's cases and advise them in any way he saw fit. The Monday morning meetings were a vital part of the departments working.

Of course, all of that was bullshit.

The meetings were almost always a waste of time. The only thing they did was keep all of them up to date on just how good or bad everyone else was doing. In the shark infested waters that were Wolfram and Hart, that alone made it worth it. Though to Holland Manners, it probably meant next to nothing. Lindsey seriously doubted that the man was ever surprised by what he heard at these meetings and did them only to strengthen the animosity the lawyers felt towards one and other, that same animosity that drove them to outdo each other. Most of the time, Manners looked as if he was only listening with one ear, but today it was hard to tell if he was there at all.

Havenwood finished up her briefing on the racketeer that she was working on getting off, a case that could have been done in Lindsey's sleep. Thankfully, that was the last of it.

"OK, people. You all have a busy schedules so let's not waste any more time then we have to. Also, I expect monthly budget reports on my desk by the end of next week or else Dolores in accounting is going to start biting our heads off. I'm sure we don't want a repeat of what happened last year with Yasley. All of you are dismissed, except for you, Lindsay. Hang back a moment, would you?" Holland said, giving everyone else the cue to leave.

Lindsey watched as everyone filed out, including an irritated Lilah Morgan. He would have loved to silently gloat but he couldn't help but feel nervous. And he had every reason to be. Lindsey knew what had happened to some of the people that Holland had asked to stay behind. The carpet in the meeting room had been changed a lot of times over the past few years.

"Relax, Lindsay. Trust me, if you had done anything wrong, you wouldn't be standing here alone with me, would you now?" Holland smiled to Lindsey who returned it, if only half heartedly. "You're familiar with our psychic department, aren't you? Not just the ones you see, mind you. I mean the department as a whole."

"Uh, yes, sir. I'm aware of them. Can't say I know exactly what they work on all the time, though. As far as I know, they mostly monitor for anything that the firm might find useful. Prophesies, the coming of a particularly nasty demon lord that we don't care for, things like that." Lindsay tried to keep his confusion out of his eyes but he had a feeling that Holland could see it.

"Exactly," he nodded. "They don't just monitor for nonspecific things, though. We also have a team that is dialed in directly to certain contracts and deals that we've made over the years. Their job is to sit and wait for one of them to come to fruition and then let the appropriate parties know."

"I take it one of these contracts came through? One of the psychics sensed something?" Lindsay asked.

Smiling again, Holland seemed pleased to see that Lindsay was able to put it together. Not that it was particularly hard, mind you. "Precisely. In fact, from what I'm told, the only thing he was able to do was call it in to Contracts before the back of his head exploded. Nasty mess, but his family will be well compensated. Are you familiar with contract twenty-seven thirty-one?"

"Can't say that I am sir. I haven't had time to go through all the old records. I've been making head way on them, but there isn't a whole lot of down time here."

"Actually, it's one of the newer ones, just made up a month ago. Bailey wrote it up, in fact. Something that I set up as a long term investment that suddenly sprang up, literally, overnight."

"That's good, sir," Lindsay said hesitantly.

Sighing, Holland walked over to the table and removed a folder from his briefcase, handing it to Lindsay. "I want you to familiarize yourself with everything in this folder. Your other cases will be taken over for you. As of right now, you have no other work except this, Lindsay. It is of the upmost importance that this is taken care. Do you understand?"

Lindsay opened up the folder and scanned the first page. "You're joking, right, sir?"

Holland leaned back, his face serious. "I see nothing funny about what's in that folder, do you?"

"I thought the Hellmouth was off limits. Wilkins has his own contract with the firm going back a hundred years or so. How do you expect us to get in there and find," Lindsey looked back at the folder finding the right word, "an Avatar, without his knowing?"

"Lindsay, unless it's in our favor, any contract we draw up has a loophole we can exploit. I suggest you find one. You'll be given full access to any files regarding this case and whatever else you may need. This is your only priority, understood?"

"Yes, sir," Lindsay said grudgingly.

"Good," Holland gathered up the last bits of his papers and his briefcase and started for the door. "Oh, and Lindsey, do make sure you have your numbers in for the budget report by the end of the day. I want you started on this right away and I'd rather Dolores not came after us. I'd hate to have to try and find someone new to work on this."

_January 25__th__, 1998_

The past few months had passed by in something of a blur to Lindsay. He started to feel less like a lawyer and more like a detective. When he wasn't spending time combing through the lengthy, and rather wordy, contract the firm had with Richard Wilkins, he was following up on several other things having to do with the Avatar and everything that entailed. That meant tracking down Ethan Rayne, which was proving harder than it should have been. Without him, it was damn near impossible to determine who had been imbued with the power of the Avatar. All of this had to be done well outside of the limits of the Hellmouth and it would stay that way until he had worked out how to get around or through the legal strangle hold that was the Wilkins contract. Whoever had drawn it up had made sure that both sides couldn't interfere with the other without expressed permission from the other party, and doing that in this case would be out of the question.

It was driving him more than a little nuts. Every day he would come in, brief Holland on what he was up to, get reminded of how important it was, and then go back to work. All of this for something that would shoot Holland up the corporate ladder, or down, rather, considering this firm. He wasn't going to lie, though. Finishing this bit of business successfully would send his own already rising star soaring. Plus, it wouldn't hurt to have a friendly face as a Senior Partner should he ever need anything. It's just that he was a lawyer, even if it was in Special Projects, and he felt more comfortable in the courtroom than in this office all day or out on the streets looking for leads.

Still, there were some perks to his new duties.

For starters, he could lord his secret project over that bitch Lilah's head. Try as she might to find out what it was, she was stopped at every turn. Word is she had even been brought into Manners' office and threatened, in not so many words, to leave it alone. The fact that she had stopped her snide remarks and digs and kept to ice cold glares only helped give validity to that rumor. It wasn't everyday that there was something in the works at Wolfram and Hart that you couldn't find something on. But this project had been marked as above top secret. Holland didn't want to risk the wrong person hearing about it and trying to snatch his prize away from him. Also it wouldn't do any good if Wilkins heard about it, either. That would pretty much stop Lindsay's plan of finding some legal loophole in his tracks and more than likely stop him from doing much of anything else.

Along with his own personal gains with this case, he also had been given clearance to almost anything in Wolfram and Hart's files and all of their extensive resources. Any file that even hinted at providing help for him, Lindsay was able to access it. If it didn't have anything to do with it, all he had to do was give a good reason why he needed to take a look at it and Holland was more than willing to sign off on it. The things that Lindsay was finding out were more than enough to keep him up at night but he had to admit that it was exhilarating. The things the firm had done, the people that it was connected to, all of it was almost too much to be believed. The resources they had were insane as well.

He had known about the hit squads, the cleanup crews and enforcers that they might use to intimidate witnesses and whatever else they needed to do to win a case. The psychics and magic users was something he had known about ever since joining Special Projects but it was so much more than that. This case, for instance, touched on things that he never even thought possible.

Apparently there wasn't just a black market for the paranormal but also an inter-dimensional one as well. People and beings from other planes of existence and parallel worlds bartered and traded things that had made Lindsay's head hurt just thinking about. There were rules of course. For one thing, you couldn't get _anything_ you wanted. Only things that you're world could handle. He didn't understand how the rules were enforced, but apparently whoever did the trading for their firm in that market either didn't know as well or didn't say, because it wasn't written down in any report that he had been able to find.

The staff, a simple wooden staff that doubled as a glider, was at the center of the whole contract that Holland had made. It had belonged to some being called 'The Avatar' from an alternate dimension, some big wig spiritual person that had power to boot. So much power, in fact, that Wolfram and Hart had taken notice. The staff in and of itself was pointless, a little trinket that was nothing but a souvenir at best. It was only after a little digging that Lindsey understood why they had paid so much for it.

When he had first read the file, Lindsay had been confused about what they had been trying to accomplish. Someone at the firm, in no way connected to Manners, of course, had hired some free range chaos mage, Rayne, to perform a spell. He was supposed to focus the spell on the staff so that whoever was holding it would become the embodiment of the Avatar. What they had hoped for was that whoever got hit with the spell would somehow retain whatever mojo the Avatar had and then pass it on when they died. Hopefully, at some point in the future, someone would have some spiritual awakening and be able to access the Avatar's abilities - at which point Wolfram and Hart would step in and groom the kid, using them just like they would anyone else they deemed powerful enough.

It was a good plan, if not without its holes.

The biggest one being Ethan Rayne.

Rayne was a self-described worshiper of chaos. He told the firm that he needed a place of power and energy flux. Everyone agreed to the general outline of the plan and then he went and disappeared, only to come back on the first of November saying that he went to the Hellmouth to perform his spell. All of the mages on payroll said that he had, in fact, cast the spell, but no one was able to locate who had ended up with the power. Not only couldn't they send in a team to try and track them down, but the magic from the Hellmouth kept them from trying long range locator spells. They only got a hit that first night because whatever energies the Avatar possessed were powerful enough to break through the mystical fog the Hellmouth created, even if it was just for a moment.

Unfortunately, by that time, Rayne had made off for parts unknown and seemed to be untraceable. He didn't even bother to take the check, which Lindsay figured made sense. A chaos mage didn't care about money. They dealt in power and the power that chaos brought them. Well, that and they'd be able to track him the moment he tried to cash it.

He was hitting dead ends everywhere he turned. Hell, they had even taken off the shoot on sight directive and the bounty on Rayne but still were having no luck. He was making even worse headway with the Wilkins contract. There was no way that any associate or even anyone that was an affiliate with Wolfram and Hart would be allowed to go into Sunnydale without stating their business before hand and clearing it with Wilkins. They couldn't even hire someone to go in there and look around, because they would be connected to the firm which made them fall under the guidelines of the contract.

The phone on his desk buzzed. Grabbing it, Lindsay answered with more anger then was probably necessary. "Yes?"

"There's someone on the line four for you, Mr. McDonald," the receptionist answered coolly. She had put up with a lot worse than an annoyed lawyer in her time and knew how to respond to all situations. "He says that it's important, but wouldn't give a name."

"Doreen, I don't have any cases. Why the hell would someone be calling me with something important, huh?" Lindsay was about ready to throw the phone against the wall. The receptionist, Doreen, was about to push him over the edge all for the sake of some idiotic phone call that was probably about a case that had been handed over to somebody else.

"Well, Mr. McDonald, I suppose that would be why he wishes to speak with _you_," Doreen replied in a perfectly civil tone, if not a little icy. "The man clearly has something important he can only talk to _you_ about."

Growling in frustration, Lindsay slammed the phone down on the receiver but failed to hear any satisfying crack of plastic. Phones were a lot sturdier then people gave them credit for. Sure enough, line four blinked at him in its annoying little way. Rubbing his temple, and after taking a few calming breathes, Lindsay hit the button and connected to the waiting call.

"Lindsay McDonald," he said with as much neutrality as he could muster.

"Ah, Mister McDonald. I hear you've been looking for me." The voice was English, slightly cultured but with a swagger in the speaker's tone.

It was Rayne! He'd listened to the phone calls and recordings the firm made of him enough to recognize it anywhere.

"Ethan Rayne," Lindsay responded. "You're a hard man to find."

"Yes, well, when someone puts a bounty on your head, you tend to lay a bit low. It wasn't too bad, really. Something of a holiday."

Lindsay clenched his teeth. "Glad you enjoyed yourself. Why don't you come back to the office and I show you how much we've missed you."

"Now, now, Lindsay. Let's not start off on the wrong foot. Not when I have something that I think you'll be interested in." As Ethan spoke, Lindsay could almost imagine his smug, smiling face on the other end. "I'm proposing a deal, of sorts. One where everyone gets what they want."

"What could you possibly have that I want, Rayne? You told us that you didn't remember who you gave the staff to and you haven't exactly been willing to help us track down whoever is was. You'll excuse me if I don't buy your sudden willingness to help."

Lindsay had pressed the trace button on the phone but doubted he would get anything useful from it. Sure enough, the number that the display gave was the main number for the firm. Either Rayne was calling from inside the building or the trace had failed.

Rayne laughed on his end. "Come now, you didn't think that I would be that stupid, did you? I may not know the boys name, but I know for a fact the people that he associates with. An ace up my sleeve, if you will. Just in case, of course."

Lindsey's frustration grew. Rayne, if he wasn't toying with him outright, was certainly making a game of the conversation. There wasn't any way that he would be able to trust the chaos mage, but he also knew that he was the only person out there that had the answers he needed. There were too many damn problems when dealing with magic users, especially chaos mages. They never kept their word, or if they did, it was so twisted and distorted that it almost wasn't worth it. The firm only used them when they had no other choice, something Holland was likely to stay away from for the foreseeable future.

Not that any of that helped Lindsey at the moment.

Making the decision, Lindsey closed his eyes tight. "What do you want, Rayne?"

"Since you and your associates have been on my trail, things have hit a bit of a rut. A few of the more colorful...people that I owe money too have been getting impatient and they're a lot better at finding me than you are. Frankly, I need my money and I want your boys to put the word out that they don't want me, anymore."

"That it?"

"No," Ethan told him. "I also expect a ten percent increase to my original fee along with my name in good graces with Wolfram and Hart. In exchange, I won't just give you the boy. I'll help you get him, too."

"You make it sound so simple. We can't just run in and grab the kid. There's…complications."

"Oh, you have no idea how hard it might actually be. I'm afraid the boy has some rather interesting friends."

"What are we talking about, here? Don't tell me you gave the staff to some big player's kid."

"The boy is a nothing, or rather, he was. I can tell you that the one good thing is that he has no idea about what's happened to him, not yet. I would have known about it if he'd awakened the power of the Avatar."

"So what's the problem, then?" Lindsey demanded.

"The Slayer's located on the Hellmouth."

Silently cursing his luck, Lindsey suppressed the urge to throw the phone against the wall. The Slayer wasn't a problem, not really. She was just one girl. Enhanced strength and imbued with mystical energies, sure, but still just one girl. It was the damn Council - _that_ was the problem.

The Council of Watchers had been around as long as Wolfram and Hart and had enough power and influence to make them a thorn in their side. As a general rule, the firm stayed away from anything having to do with the Council. It was the reason why Wolfram and Hart never went after the Slayer, either to get her to join them or to wipe her out if she got in the way.

"Great," Lindsey muttered. "You gave the power of the Avatar to someone linked to the Slayer."

"It seemed like a fun idea at the time," Ethan said without remorse.

"Yeah, well your 'fun idea' has royally screwed us! Give me one reason why I should help you? Why should I do anything except leave you out there to swing, huh?"

"Because," Ethan said with a breath. "Without me, you don't have a hope of getting to him. I know the Slayer, and her Watcher. I can get closer than you could ever hope."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but you can't. No one can."

With a sigh, Ethan said, "Don't tell me you're still stuck on that whole mess with Wilkins? I thought Wolfram and Hart lawyers were supposed to be smart?"

"How the hell do you know about that?"

"Do you honestly believe that you people, and I use that term loosely, hold the corner stone on dark and mysterious dealings? The world is a big place and there's a way to get anything, if you want it bad enough."

Ignoring how Ethan knew about the firm's contract with Wilkins, Lindsey asked, "What the hell would you do then, huh? No one that works for this firm can even look at Sunnydale without letting Wilkins know about."

Ethan paused and for some reason, Lindsay got the distinct impression that he was rolling his eyes.

"Then why don't you _not_ work there?"

_Present Day_

Lindsey quickly pulled on his jeans as fast as he could without injuring himself. Holland's parting words were probably meant as part threat and part warning. He was never foolish enough to think that Holland ever cared about him as anything other than a tool. Still, he knew that Holland hadn't completely counted him out yet, hence the warning. If he had, Lindsey never would have made it out of Sunnydale with a pulse, much less to this hospital and have gotten patched up. Still, he needed to get out of town, fast.

The duffle bag in the closet only had one change of clothes in it and Lindsey was already wearing it. At least that made it easier to shove all of the files into it. Once he was sure he had everything he needed, Lindsey limped out of the hospital and hailed a taxi. He was pretty sure that no one from the firm knew about where he had stored his old pickup truck, so he at least had a way to leave.

It was all gone. In one fell swoop he had lost everything.

No, that wasn't completely true.

He had his hatred and he could use that to focus him.

Only one thing could get his life back.

And if that didn't work, he'd at least have the satisfaction of killing Alexander Fucking Harris with his bare hands.


	7. Chapter 7

**_A/N:_** Alright then, again, thanks go to Greywizard for the beta help. It always makes a bit more sense after he gets through with it. And, of course, thanks to everybody who reads and to those that take the time to review, it always helps the muse to hit me upside the head with her idea stick. Oh, and for a nice Avatar story, check out "I'll Walk You Home" by Justthisguyyouknow. It's a good, fun read. Well, here's the next bit and hope you guys enjoy it.

Chapter 7

The water was up to Xander's ankles and cold. The weather may be getting warmer but the winter months, or at least what passed for winter in Southern California, had barely ended and the water hadn't warmed much. With a grimace, Xander forced himself to get used to it as best he could, but without a shirt on, he was fighting to keep his body from shivering. After a few moments, though, he rolled his shoulders, settled into a stance, and began to move.

It had been a few days since he and Aang had worked out how to train in the other elements. Xander was only slightly off with his movements and they had worked on correcting it for a bit. His footwork was fine after that. His body was smooth when it needed to be and solid at other times. Without the ability to bend in the Spirit World, the rest had been slow going to figure out what the problem was. After a while, Aang had finally asked the right question. What was Xander _feeling_ as he went through the moves? It was the one thing that he hadn't learned from Aang's memories and something that he didn't even think about with Airbending.

When he was Airbending, Xander did it with almost no thought at all as to what he was doing. It was natural to him, just like breathing. Sitting down and thinking about it though, he realized that there was more to it. They talked about that for a while, how it felt to bend, something that seemed to excite Aang to no end. It had been over a hundred years since he had talked to anyone about it and now there wasn't anyone left. Each move had a slightly different feel to it, though all had an underlining theme. It was the constant movement and, in a weird way, the ability to change and adapt. Oh, sure, when you created a tornado, not that he had actually done that yet, that quality was lessened but it was still there. Xander doubted that he could actually explain how those things felt to any of his friends or maybe even anyone aside from Aang. Who else could actually understand it?

It was the same way with all of the other elements as well, though for the time being the focused solely on Waterbending. It was similar to Airbending but instead of focusing on change, it focused channeling the force and working with it, redirecting it. As Aang told him, "Don't change yourself, that won't get you anywhere. Feel were the water is going, feel what it _wants_ to do and work with that. You can't fight it, you have to use that momentum, make it your own."

As Xander lifted his hands and felt the water rise into a thin stream and then formed a large glob between his palms, he relaxed himself. It was hard work since he was pretty much doing it all on his own, but he knew that it was infinitely better because he was the Avatar. He at least had the instincts of those past lives to help him. If he had simply been a Waterbender then he would have been screwed. There was no way he could have done this on his own. He knew that Katara had been able to at least teach herself a few things, but she was also one of the most powerful Waterbenders of her time.

Slowly, Xander started to go through the movements of one of the simpler forms and focused on his limbs. The water rolled along with his arms, moving as he saw fit. Instead of stopping when he finished one set, he spun smoothly into the next one and felt the water go with him. The water flowed, dipped and spun with his every move. It was an incredible feeling. When he was finally done with the set, he returned to the starting stance, lowered his arms and returned the water back to the pond, making sure that it didn't make a single sound or splash.

Letting out a breath, Xander turned only to be greeted by the sound of his friends' clapping. Lowering his head embarrassed, he said, "You know, I said you could come along with me 'cause you said you weren't going distract me while I was training."

Grinning brightly, Buffy turned to Willow. "Do you remember doing anything while he was training?"

"No, I distinctly remember not saying a peep," Willow said with a smile. Looking to Oz, she asked, "Honey?"

"There was a distinct lack of distraction," he told her.

Returning their smiles, Xander got out of the pond and jumped the twelve feet over to where everyone were sitting and quickly picked up his shirt, trying to get warm. It was slightly awkward having his friends watch him as he practiced, but he understood their curiosity. While he was used to this kind of thing, only being amazed when he stopped to think about it all, to the rest of them, it was fascinating. Still, it was nice having them around, and with Oz out of the hospital, Willow was insanely happy and energetic, which made Xander happy as well.

Oz had to be in a wheelchair for a while, but so far that was the only complication. They would need to wait and see if he regained the full use of his legs and he'd be in therapy for a while, but it was better than what they had expected. This had come as something of a surprise to everybody, most of all the doctors. When Oz had initially been released, they had thought he would be confined to a wheel chair for the rest of his life. His spinal cord had been injured and, along with other complications to his internal organs, the doctors had believed him to be in too much pain to move on his own. That was before the full moon, however.

Giles hadn't mentioned it before-hand, not wanting to get anyone's hopes up, but he suspected that the mystical energies that transformed Oz into a werewolf might help in his recovery. The first night when Oz turned, the wolf knew that he wasn't up to full strength. Instead of growling, howling and throwing himself against the book cage, wolf-Oz simply curled up in a corner and whimpered. The next two nights followed the same suit, Oz turning and spending the whole time holed up in the corner till sunrise. It wasn't until after the third night, when Oz changed back into his human form, that anyone had seen a difference in him. For starters, he didn't wince in pain every time he moved a muscle and he had better range than before. Not only that, but he had some movement in his legs again, something that they had previously thought impossible. After a quick trip to the doctor and some x-rays, the doctors had said that some of the damage had repaired itself. They were baffled by it, of course, but the Sunnydale syndrome struck again and they dismissed it as one of those freaks of medical science. Giles, after expressing his theory on Oz's healing, told them that after another full moon or two, Oz might even be back to normal, or close enough that no one should be able to tell.

Finishing putting on his shirt, Xander asked, "How's Faith holding up?"

"Sore and annoyed at being put on the bench," Buffy said with a shrug. "She should be fine in a day or so, Slayer healing and all."

"Too bad we couldn't get to you guys in time. Maybe we would have made some difference," Xander said solemnly.

Buffy and Faith had stumbled on the demon Balthazar last night and it hadn't gone very well for Team Slayer. Both Slayers had ended up taking him and his group of sword wielding vampire maniacs on, but not without Faith being seriously hurt. If she hadn't been a Slayer, she'd be dead and not simply sore while her ribs and other injuries healed.

"Hey, it could have been a lot worse. Giles said that if he had fully regained his powers from the amulet thingy, he could have done a lot more. Lucky for us, he hadn't had it on for too long." Buffy shivered, adding, "I just wish we had got there _before_ he got out of his giant tub. Giant naked demons are not my idea of fun."

Xander grinned as Willow pulled a face. "Still, it might not have gone as bad as it had if I had been able to get there in time."

"Is that so, Mister great and powerful Avatar?" Buffy asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Definitly," Xander teased. Jumping twenty feet into the air, Xander twisted and landed on the picnic table in a mock Airbender stance. "A few well placed cyclones, maybe a twister or two, and Bal-what-ever-the-hell-his-name-was would be quaking in his big ol' demon skin."

"Of course he would. I'm sure that a demon the size of a house would fall right over after being hit by a gentle breeze," Buffy shot back playfully.

Giving her a look, Xander blew out a breath just strong enough to rock her back a bit, earning him a glare while she fixed her hair. With another silly smile plastered on his face, Xander hopped off the table and sat on the grass. While awkward around his powers, he knew that his friends were doing what they could to stay natural with him. Besides, it felt nice to just relax with them for the moment. He already trained earlier in the day so he could blow off doing anything intensive for the afternoon. No monsters, currently, were breathing down their necks so they didn't have to spend any time researching or running about and trying to stop them. It was one of those rare moments of peace and quiet that they had learned to savor.

"So, you guys up for the Bronze later?" Buffy asked, clearly not feeling up to basking in the quiet.

"Could be a scene," Oz commented. "Line up for tonight's supposed to be pretty good."

"You sure you'll be up for it?" Willow asked concerned.

Patting her hand reassuringly, Oz gave her a soft smile. It was all the response he gave and apparently all the response that Willow needed.

"Count me out, I have to train tonight," Xander told them.

"Again? Weren't you just training?" Willow asked.

"It's a constant thing," he explained. "I'm fighting an uphill battle learning how to control this. Besides, Giles wants me to translate some book or something that he got. I think he's kind of annoyed that he can read five languages but has to ask me to translate this for him."

"Oh, is it something Avatar-y?" Willow asked.

Thinking about it for a moment, Xander realized he didn't actually know and simply shrugged. "Could be. Though for all I know, it could be something he had coming in and just doesn't want to spend the time translating it on his own."

"Is anyone else starting to feel gypped from their costumes? I swear, next Halloween I'm going as something with a bit more power than some eighteenth century ditz," Buffy said. "I mean, I don't even know what fork to use for a salad, even."

"Tell you what, next time some inter-dimensional being takes over one of us, I'll let you have first crack at him," Xander said with a role of his eyes.

"That's all I ask," Buffy said cheerily.

Xander leaned back, letting the conversation between his friends go on around him. Well, more like the conversation between Buffy and Willow. Oz was never that big on talking unless it was to throw in the occasional bit of wisdom. Lifting his arm and gently moving it around, Xander concentrated and a small stream of water from the lake rose out of the surface and moved about. Pretty soon, he'd have to go. But for now, he could sit here and pretend that everything was fine and normal.

Yep, he was just like any other teenager who could control the elements.

__

Opening the door to the apartment, Xander stopped in his tracks. Wesley was sitting at the table pouring over several books laid out in front of him. The man hadn't even looked up when Xander had entered the home, so engrossed in the books he was. Sneaking up behind the young Watcher, Xander raised his bag and dropped it heavily onto the table.

With a yelp, Wesley jumped back and nearly fell out of his chair. "Oh, uh, Xander. I, um, didn't hear you come in. How is, um...everything?"

Sighing, Xander walked into the kitchen alcove and opened the fridge. "Everything? That's kind of a big question, Wesley. Let's just stick to something easier."

"Yes, quite right," Wesley responded quietly.

Wesley was an interesting little addition to their group.

When Xander had woken from his meditative trance a few days ago and found the Watcher tied and gagged to a chair, he was confused. When he found out that Wesley had seen him glowing eyes and all, he was the only one who hadn't freaked out. It wasn't that he wasn't fearful of how people would react if they ever found out who he was now, he just wasn't going to hid himself, either. If someone found out, and if they were in the know, he would explain it to them as best as he saw fit. If they didn't know the truth about the supernatural, he would figure it out from there. Needless to say, Giles wasn't too happy with his decision but had agreed that it was his choice to make. Wesley had been skeptical at first. After a brief demonstration, his skepticism was wiped away and instead, he had thought that Xander was some kind of demon, manipulating the rest of them.

It had taken a long time, several threats from Buffy, and one or two yelling matches between him and Giles, but finally Wesley conceded that Xander _probably_ wasn't a demon. After an additional few hours, he even started to believe them about what had actually happened. Admittedly, the notes that Giles had written down and the research material had helped a great deal. Though it was only after Wesley started to believe them and understand it all, that he started to act differently. Whenever he looked at Xander, he became very nervous, almost as if he was expecting something horrible to happen. Then again, Wesley was also convinced that Xander would someday become akin to something of a demigod if he ever reached his full strength. Again, it was only through several threats from Buffy and a private conversation between Giles and the younger Watcher that he'd agreed to not say anything to the Council, though everyone agreed that they had to watch him extremely closely, just in case.

Grabbing a bottle of water, Xander came back in and peeked at the books in front of Wesley and the notepad next to him. Most of them were translation books, something that Xander had learned always seemed to be out whenever Giles was researching. The few that weren't, however, were the books that Giles had collected that referenced the Avatar or the Spirit World. Xander recognized all of them, since he had translated and read them all a few times.

All except one, that is.

"That the new book?" Xander asked.

"Yes, it just arrived today. It was one of the ones in my father's collection, actually," Wesley told him.

"Hmm." Xander stood next to Wesley, glancing between the book and the notepad. Every so often, he would make a disappointed sound or shake his head. It didn't take long before Wesley, who was already looking nervous and uncomfortable, lost his composure.

"What? What is it?" Wesley hissed, clearly annoyed.

"Your translation," Xander told him simply. "It's wrong."

"What do you mean, my translation is wrong? I've spent the last six hours going through this book, comparing the subtle differences in the languages, taking into account the different dialects that were spoken and written then. This is the best translation possible!"

"Yeah, and yet, it's wrong." Pointing at a particular line in the book, Xander started reading what was written. When he was finished, he then pointed at the notepad where Wesley had written several sentences and said, "_That_ does not translate into_, 'Great dragon tusk driven by fire.'."_

"How did you...you can _read_ this?" Wesley cried. "When did you learn Archaic Chinese?"

"Just part of the whole Avatar roller coaster ride," Xander said slowly while staring at the book.

Wesley stood up, eyes wide. "You mean to tell me that you can understand any language?"

"No, just Chinese." Xander picked up the book and started flipping through it. "Where did you say you got this again?"

"My father," Wesley said dismissively. "Xander, there are dozens of dialects not to mention the different forms of these languages throughout the ages...you know all of them?"

"Huh? Oh, well, technically no."

"Technically?" Wesley squeaked.

"Well, I _know_ different forms from the four different nations, including those from a hundred years ago. It just happens that they match up with Chinese. Come to think of it, it does seem pretty weird that so much of that world has a lot in common with Asia." Xander continued reading the book, never taking his eyes off it while he talked. "Where's Giles?"

"He isn't back yet," Wesley said with some of the astonishment still in his voice. "Really? Any form of Chinese or does it include all of Asia as well?"

"Wesley, shut up for a moment," Xander snapped. "We have bigger things to worry about than my linguistic skills. Remember how I said your translation was wrong? Well, there's a good reason for that. These characters shouldn't exist here."

"What do you mean?" Wesley asked. "They certainly seem a bit...off, I admit, but I can still recognize Archaic Chinese from other languages."

"_This," _Xander told him, holding the book open in front of him, "isn't Chinese. This is a dialect from the, um, crap, what was it again. Right, the Hun region, about three miles from the Southern Air temple. Wesley, this was written by someone from the Earth Kingdom, from the Avatar's world. Where did your father get this?"

"I...I don't know," Wesley admitted. "When I made my request for material to the Council, my father called and offered some of his own books. Honestly, it seemed a bit out of character for him, but it was for official Watcher business."

"Your father just called up and sent it? What did you tell him you were researching?" Xander asked, his anger starting to grow.

Stepping back, almost instinctively, Wesley said, "Nothing to do with you, at least not by name. You see, I couldn't simply get anything even if I am the Watcher to not one, but two Slayers. I had to give a reason."

"What did you say?" Xander said glaring.

"I-I-I simply told them that there were rumors of a powerful spirit in the area, something not quite demonic." Wesley was starting to visibly get nervous, sweat beads starting to form on his brow.

"That's it?"

Visibly gulping, Wesley added, "I, uh, may have mentioned the name of a spirit."

Stepping forward, Xander, who may have been only an inch or two taller than Wesley, saw the man visibly shrink. "_Which. One?"_

"Yue," Wesley whispered.

Faster than the Wesley could react, Xander sped forward. It was only a short distance between the two, but Xander was able to thrust his palm out and sent a short blast of air into Wesley's chest, knocking him against the wall and to the floor.

"You used Yue's name? How stupid could you be?" Xander yelled standing over him. "Or did you just not give a crap and decided to ignore everything that we've told you?"

Sitting up slightly, Wesley looked dazed but tried to answer. "You don't understand. The Council doesn't know anything about you, about that world."

"Is that the same Council who locked Buffy in a room without her powers and a crazed vampire? Or maybe it's the Council that didn't bother to tell anyone about Kendra or Faith? How about the same group of people that fired Giles simply because he gave a damn about Buffy instead of thinking of her as a weapon? Huh? Is that the Council you're talking about?"

Pulling back his hand, Xander drew in a strong amount of air from behind Wesley's spot on the floor causing the man to lift up high enough for Xander to grab the front of his shirt. He wanted to hit the man. Dear God, did Xander want to hit him. But somewhere in the back of his mind, the part of him that told him to show restraint and to use reason started shouting at him. It was a near thing, but in the end, it was the look in Wesley's eyes that stopped him. The young Watcher looked afraid. Not just at the idea of being beaten, no, this was the fear that some people experienced when they came face to face with an enraged Avatar. Considering that Wesley had no real knowledge of benders and could have never seen any, Xander's display of using his gifts so naturally only served to enhance that fear.

Closing his eyes, Xander let go of Wesley's shirt and, though he stumbled, he stayed on his feet. "Either you're lying, they're lying or, your father's lying."

Trying to regain some of his composure, but failing, Wesley straightened his shirt and tried to keep himself from shaking. "What, uh, what do you mean?"

"The book isn't just written by someone from the Earth Kingdom, it was written over a hundred years ago, their time." Xander gripped the book hard, feeling his knuckles crack.

At first, Wesley didn't say anything, still afraid that he might set Xander off again. Finally, he asked, "Is that, uh, significant in some way?"

Opening up the book to the page Wesley had been on, Xander began to read.

_"The comet streaked across the sky, burning the clouds out of its path. The ships, seeing the comet as a signal, pushed forward with much greater speed then I have previously seen. Those who were already on land, surged toward the Air Temple. It was hard to see the different Firebenders, so great were their number, as they rode on their Komodo-dragons. _

_"If the Airbenders knew what was coming, they didn't show it. Several of them stood out on balconies, watching the approaching army with a calm that would have humbled the most stoic of men. It was as if they simply didn't care if they lived or died. Or, perhaps, they simply knew that it would be pointless to run. Whatever the reason, the Air Nomads of the Southern Air Temple stood their ground, fighting with every ounce of their being. _

_"Still, it was no match for the great Fire Nation armies. Spurred on by the comet's power, the Firebenders eradicated any Air Nomad in the temple. Surely, no one could survive against such a terrifying and powerful force. One can only wonder what age the Firebender's shall usher in."_

Xander stopped reading, his throat closing up, becoming dry with each word. He didn't know how, but the Watcher's Council, or perhaps just Wesley's father, had got their hands on something that described one of the most horrible events in the history of the Avatar's world. He couldn't bring himself to go any further, almost afraid of what he might find. Xander may not be from their world, but the genocide of the Air Nomads by the hand of the Fire Nation struck him deep inside. It wasn't simply seeing it or that he had watched the pain on Aang's face when he learned about it, it was deeper than that. On that day, the balance of that world had been destroyed, almost for good. As the Avatar, he felt that shift on a level so profound he couldn't describe it.

"Good Lord."

Xander and Wesley looked up to see Giles standing in the doorway. His mouth had formed a small O and his bag was on the floor where he had apparently dropped it. "Xander, is that describing what I think it is?"

"Sozin's Comet, the first time it came around. The day when Firelord Sozin wiped out the Air Nomads." Xander's voice was hoarse as he spoke. Taking control of himself, Xander cleared his head with a small shake. It wouldn't do him any good to get worked up, not now. Not until they understood how this book came to be.

"Mister Giles," Wesley said almost pleadingly. "You have to understand, I had no idea what the book was about. I'm _still_ fairly certain that I don't know what it's about."

Giles shut the door behind him and said, "No, it's fine. You couldn't have known."

"Giles, how the hell is this possible?" Xander asked, making sure that he kept his voice as calm as possible. "This isn't Chinese, it's Earth Kingdom. Not just the language, the speech as well. It's...impossible!"

"Honestly, I have no clue," Giles admitted. Taking the book from Xander, he glanced at the pages, though it was clear he didn't understand any of it. "When I asked Wesley to use the Council's resources, I was expecting more of what we already had, bits and pieces of information hidden in sources."

"This is a bit more than bits and pieces, Giles."

"You're certain that this book is from the, uh, other world?" Giles asked.

"The book? No," Xander told him. "The words are though. It's why all of Wesley's translations were coming out garbled. They words literally don't exist here. If it was written in the Earth Kingdom, it would have been on a set of scrolls. They had books back then but only the really rich bound anything. Everyone else had scrolls."

Giles turned to Wesley, asking, "You told me earlier that your father sent this to you, is that correct?"

"Yes," Wesley replied. "But again, I didn't understand why. He didn't say what it was about, just that it might be useful. He never said anything about it being from another dimension!"

"Obviously he wasn't being completely forth-coming, was he?" Giles said tersely. "There are several questions, though, that have to be answered. Namely, how did he get something like this in his possession, and how much does he know?"

"He's your father," Xander shot at Wesley. "Any ideas?"

"I, uh," Wesley paused, composed himself a bit, then began. "My father is a...complicated man. I've often tried to understand why he does the things he does but, try as I might, I can never tell. He's very private, you understand."

"Private enough to hide inter-dimensional dealings from you, it seems."

"Xander," Giles snapped. "I can understand your feelings at the moment but, please, for the time being, think rationally. I don't think that Wesley knew anything more than what he told us. If the Council is hiding something, than they were hiding it from him as well. Now, it's possible that it's merely something that's been lost in the Council's library o-o-or perhaps known only to those at the top of the Council. While Wesley's father may have been hiding something, it's not nearly as likely as the Council doing so. Keep in mind, his father is one of the more senior members of the Council."

Xander wanted to argue, to blame Wesley, but he knew that Giles was right. Wesley was many things, one of them being semi-spineless prat at times. It was that very thing that made Xander believe that Wesley would have told them if he knew anything. Still, the idea that there were other people out there that knew about the world of the Avatar, and had records detailing the destruction of the Air Nomads no less, made him want scream. But, Giles was right to tell him to calm down.

It took a few breaths, but finally he was able to think clearly. Clasping his fist in his hand, Xander bowed to Wesley. "I'm sorry, Wesley. I let my personal feelings cloud my judgment."

Wesley looked uncomfortable as Xander bowed to him apologizing. But, with the look Giles was giving him, he quickly got over it, at least visibly. "Uh, that's, um, quite alright, Xander. Though, if I may ask, what is it that got you so upset?"

Rising with a sigh, Xander became somber. "The passage in this book, the one you were translating, described the genocide of the Air Nomads. It spoke about the attack on the Southern Air Temple specifically, the temple that Aang lived in before...well, before a lot of things happened."

"You can't possibly believe that the Council had anything to do with that, can you?" Wesley said.

"No, I don't. But either your father or the Council got their hands on the story and if they know about this, what else do they know?" Xander told him.

"Not only that but how much they know about what's gone on here, as well," Giles said. "Why this book? Why something that has such a passage in it? Xander, is there anything in there about other events?"

Shrugging, Xander answered, "I wouldn't know. I only glanced at that passage and one or two others. Those were all about the beginning of the war. It will take a little bit of time, but I'll let you know when I'm done with it."

"You're, uh, keeping the book?" Wesley asked. It was clear that he wasn't comfortable with the idea of the book being out of his possession but he knew that he wasn't getting a say in the matter.

"Unless you're able to read Earth Kingdom," Xander told before turning and heading towards his room. Stopping, Xander looked back at Wesley. "You said that you mentioned Yue to the Council? Her specifically?"

"Yes," Wesley said. "If I didn't have to, I wouldn't have. But I needed something to get them to look for reference material for the research."

"I didn't think about it before, but why would that matter to any of them? Yue's the new Spirit of the Moon, not someone that anyone should really know about."

Giles saw where he was going. "So why did that name matter so much to them. It shouldn't, not unless they had some information of their current events. Which only makes the question of what else they know that much more pertinent."

Xander locked eyes with Giles for a moment. This made things much more complicated and, more than likely, that much worse.

Going into his room, Xander sat down on his bed and began to read. At the moment, training could wait. Everything else could wait. Nothing else mattered right now except for this.

__

Flipping through the channels, Faith grumbled and seriously considered throwing the remote through the television screen. It wasn't the fact that there was nothing on that bugged her, though that was annoying. What bothered her more was being put on the injured list for the time being. It didn't matter that it was only for a few days, she was getting restless, damn it! Plus, every day she went without even a little action was a day she was stuck thinking. If she could even train a little bit, she could work her damn thoughts out of her head. But even with her Slayer healing, she needed to rest. She would have ignored it, but if she screwed herself even more, then she'd be out of it for even longer.

Being put on the side only furthered her feelings of being an outcast in the group. She had expected it, deep down inside anyway, that she would have to fight tooth and nail to be let in. After all, this was _Buffy_ she was talking about. _The_ Buffy, the Slayer. The girl who took down the Judge with a rocket launcher, the girl who stopped the Hellmouth from opening, took down The Master, and all other sorts of stories. Anyone who was close to her would be a hard group to open up. At least, that's what she had thought. Truth was, the group wasn't the problem. They were all nice, if a bit naive. Buffy was the only real issue.

Faith might have only been called a few months before showing up in Sunnydale but, damn it, she was a Slayer, too! All anyone seemed to talk about was Buffy. The girl could do no wrong it seemed. Even when she lied about her blood sucking boyfriend being back from hell, they all did some big group hug and moved past it. It was downright disgusting. It was as if they all forgot that Faith was Buffy's equal, her sister Slayer. But no, she was always pushed to the background when it came to training, when it came to patrol schedules. She did her own thing not because she was so freaking independent, but because she refused to be anyone's after thought.

After a little time, she got used to it. She didn't like it, but she made herself deal with it like the big girl she was. For a while, it was good. Buffy may have been in the spotlight, but Faith was making her own path and once in a while, she even brought Buffy along for the ride. Showing her the fun part of embracing what they were, of loving the fact that they were Slayers. Then, fucking Xander Harris had to go and change everything.

Xander was harmless in her books, something like a sweet little puppy that she decided to give a go at. She had fun, but that was it. Sure, she might go back, screw with his head a bit for some harmless fun, but that was it. Then, he gained all those freaky ass powers and it turned out that instead of some nothing softy, he was something called an Avatar, or The Avatar, or some shit like that. Either way, he changed the whole damn dynamics. Now, everything was about _him_. What was going on with _Xander_? Was _Xander_ going to be OK? Well, who the fuck cares? Far as she was concerned, if he turned out to be some kind of a danger, then they should kill him like the monster he was. She had seen the kind of power he could wield and she'd admit it was scary. It might even be better to stop him now than wait for it to happen, but who asked her?

Getting up off the bed, Faith walked over to the window, forcing herself not to wince or limp. Staring out at the dingy street in front of her did nothing to improve her mood.

She had thought that things might change when the Council sent her and Buffy a new Watcher after axing Giles. Faith thought it was wrong that they fired him for caring about Buffy, but she still looked forward to a fresh start. Of course, one look at him and Faith just knew that a fresh start was the last thing she'd get. Out of the two of them, Buffy still followed the rules more than she did, which would make the stick up Wesley's ass only that more rigid when it came to herself. Then, almost right off the bat, the damn idiot went and found out about Xander and now he was wrapped up in it as well!

Growling in frustration, Faith slammed her fists on the dresser by the window, cracking the wood beneath her hands. She would have followed it up with a second hit, if only just to do something, but the quick movement had caused her injured ribs to scream at her to stop. Testing her side gingerly with her fingers, Faith couldn't help but yelp at the pain she felt. Not for the first time, she thanked whatever God gave her the Slayer powers. A normal person would have been killed by the beating she had taken while she protected Buffy's back. Sure, she took down the big bad demon, but it was Faith that helped off the seven vampires who would have taken Buffy down the moment she turned her back on them.

A knock at the door put Faith on alert. No one said anything, which excluded anyone she would have known. All of the little Scooby Gang members knew well enough to announce themselves when they knocked, just to make sure no one greeted them at the door with a knife at the throat. Another knock, this time louder, got Faith to straighten her back and, pain or not, grab a stake that she kept on the night stand.

"Yeah?" Faith called out letting her Boston accent slip out.

"I'm looking for a Miss Lehane? Faith Lehane?"

The guy on the other end of the door sounded bored more than anything else. Faith wasn't getting any kind of supernatural vibe but even if her mystery visitor was a regular human it didn't mean he couldn't be dangerous. Even hit men could sound bored and still kill you.

"Who said she was here?" Faith called back making sure to stay away from the door. Bullets and spells could eat through wood like it wasn't even there and it was best to play it safe.

"Look, either she's there or she isn't. I've got a schedule to keep."

When Faith didn't answer, she heard disgruntled mumbling on the other end. After another moment, she heard the man drop something heavily on the floor and walk off. It wasn't until she heard a car door slam shut and drive off that she let herself check the door. Still ready for something to pop out and attack her, Faith hesitantly opened it. All the muscles in her body tensed but found nothing to exert the energy on. Instead of a demon, vampire or even a bomb, there was a large bouquet of flowers in a simple white vase. Still, Faith was wary about it and poked it a few times with the tip of her stake, almost knocking it over. When she was sure that there was nothing sinister about it, she picked it up and carried it inside, kicking the door shut behind her.

The flowers were beautiful. Red lilies and blue iris were sprinkled with baby's breath practically overflowing in the vase. Placing it down on the dresser, Faith looked at it for a while. While they certainly seemed harmless, it only served to bother her more. Why would anyone send her flowers? If it was because she was injured, then any of the Scoobies would have brought them over themselves, not that they would do that, anyway. So what was the point? Why her?

A tiny voice in her head told her it could be bugged, she might be being watched. No, that was crazy, wasn't it? Why watch her? Well, OK. Why would anyone other than perverted men and some women watch her? If it was because she was the Slayer, they wouldn't bother with watching her. They'd just kill her outright.

Still, all of the rational reasons she gave herself that it couldn't be some kind of surveillance didn't make her mind shut up. Deciding that it was best to just ignore it, Faith got up and...realized that she had absolutely nothing to do. She was trapped in this little roach infested hole in the wall. If something caught her outside while she was hurting then she'd be easy pickings.

_'Wait. Did that flower just turn towards me?'_

Faith stood as still as she could, watching the flowers. She didn't know how long she stayed like that, staring at the flowers but finally she cracked and shook her head.

"I must be losing my fucking mind," Faith muttered. Still, when she went to turn away she swore that the damn flowers followed her movement again.

Her eyes grew wild as she moved to the vase. Picking it up, she turned it around over and over again in her hands. Flowers and water spilled out onto the dresser as Faith flipped the vase over, inspecting it from every angle. Dumping the remaining lilies and iris out, she looked inside the jar, seeing nothing. Feeling around inside of it, her anger at not being able to find anything growing, she grunted and threw the vase against the wall, shattering it.

Next, she moved onto the flowers themselves, picking through the small pile of them, tearing some of them apart with her rough handling. Petals and leaves fell to the ground as she tossed the flowers away after each inspection.

She wasn't crazy, damn it. She knew that there was something wrong here. She wasn't crazy. She wasn't her fucking mother.

Breathing heavily, Faith's eyes grew soft as she found what she was looking for. Found the thing that didn't belong. A plain, white business card, slightly bent and crumpled from her search had been hidden under the flowers, probably stuck in-between them. Sure, it wasn't a flower camera or anything like that, but it proved that she wasn't nuts. She _knew_ that there was something there and this proved it.

There was no name on the card, no business logo or anything like that. Instead, in soft cursive handwriting, was a telephone number. She didn't recognize the number, or even the area code. Flipping it around, Faith wasn't surprised when there was nothing on the back. She knew that she should probably call Wesley and let him know about, tell him about the flowers and the card, but she didn't. He'd want to take a look at the flowers and Faith had pretty much destroyed them and then she'd have to make up an excuse as to why she did it. Anything she said would make her look crazy in one way or another and she was _not_ crazy.

Pocketing the card, Faith rolled her shoulders a bit and began cleaning up the mess. She'd find out what was going on, on her own. She worked better that way anyway. No one to point fingers and blame. No threat of name calling or the chance to hurt her. She was fine this way, really.

Sitting across the street in his car, Jason Parker looked through his binoculars into Faith's window.

"Yes, she found the card," he said into his cell phone. "Yes, she acted just as you said she would."

He paused, listening to instructions.

"Yes, ma'am. Not a problem. I'll keep an eye on her. Anything else?"

Another pause.

"No, he hasn't made any contact with her. Would you like me to arrange...? Yes, of course. That won't be an issue."

The line went dead as his contact hung up the phone. Putting the cell and the binoculars down, he started the car and slowly drove away.


	8. Chapter 8

**_A/N: _**Word to the wise, bronchitis in the summer is not fun. If you have the choice, don't get it. Thanks go out again Greywizard for his excellent work as beta. I do want to thank those who have reviewed and put this story on alert. I know it may seem like it's a bunch of threads that go no where, but it will make sense, trust me. It will just take some time, so hopefully you guys will stick with it. Oh, and a fun little story for those of you looking for something to read is "Opheliac" by cupid-painted-blind. Alright, that's all folks. As always, let me know what you think.

Chapter 8

Almost before the bartender had finished pouring the shot, Lindsey grabbed the glass and downed the whiskey. He would have signaled for another but he didn't want to be drunk, not yet anyway. He'd wait until after the meeting with Ethan to decide if he needed to be trashed. Though considering that Ethan was already an hour late, it didn't bode too well for his liver. He had already been sitting at the stool furthest from the door while still facing it for two hours, and he gave Ethan another thirty minutes before he took off.

The bar was some hole in the wall in some no name town close to Sunnydale. Lindsey had made it out of L.A. without any incident and wasn't about to chance being anywhere near there, just in case Wolfram and Hart got it in their heads to take a shot at him. Not that being out of the city would hinder the firm any, but they didn't like to work too far from home. It was harder to operate when you weren't completely aware of who the locals were, both law enforcement and demons.

Lindsey made sure to wait a few days before he contacted Ethan. He even went so far as to use a few of the minor deflection spells that he had picked up to keep anyone from keeping track of him or monitoring his phone calls. He didn't have much of a talent for magic, but they were simple enough for him to manage. Ethan hadn't called him back for a while and was surprised that he had managed to survive the crash, as well as being in Wolfram and Hart's custody. It had taken him a great deal of convincing, but Ethan had finally agreed to meet him.

Glancing at the clock on the wall, Lindsey almost growled in frustration. Still, he'd waited another ten minutes before Ethan finally walked in the door. The chaos mage was dressed well, as he always was. The face he made while he walked over to Lindsey was one of pure disgust. The man might have dirty hands, but it didn't look as if he liked being in the more down and out places if he could avoid it.

"You couldn't have picked some place with a bit more class?" Ethan said, sitting down next to the former lawyer. Shaking his head when the bartender came over, he added, "I can't stay long, you understand. I have a car waiting for me to take me to the airport."

"Heading out of the country, huh?" Lindsey asked, his voice thicker than normal from the alcohol. Maybe he had drunk more than he thought. " 'm feeling the pressure comin' in from all sides, too."

"Going on a bit of a vacation, actually. Maybe somewhere in the tropics. One of the islands were the girls are loose with their morals, as well as other areas," Ethan corrected him with a smirk.

Lindsey didn't join in with him. "Vacation? How the hell do you plan on doing that?"

"By being very, very drunk," Ethan said plainly. Looking down by Lindsey's chair, Ethan spotted the cane leaning up against it and raised an eyebrow.

Stopping himself from rubbing his leg, Lindsey's lips curled in anger. "A gift from our friend."

"Yes, that was a bit of a problem. How in the world did he manage to escape Wolfram and Hart's guards, anyway?"

"Friends," Lindsey grunted. "Same friends you were supposed to keep busy."

"Don't go blaming me for that cock-up," Ethan immediately protested. "I took a beating to keep Rupert and his Slayer from getting involved. Neither one of us knew that there was another Slayer running about."

"Doesn't matter," Lindsey said dismissively. "The question is, what are we going to do about it?"

Again, Ethan looked at him confused. "Do about what?"

"About wh-. About Harris! About the God damn Avatar, that's what!"

"You're going after him? Again?" Ethan chuckled, shaking his head. "Have fun with that. I'll be sure to send flowers to whatever hospital he puts you in this time."

"You think this is funny?" Lindsey demanded. "That bastard made us look like fools and took away our whole lives. You think Wolfram and Hart are going to forget everything just because things went badly that night? You think you can out run them again?"

"What _are_ you going on about? I told you, I'm not running, I'm taking a break. I have nothing to fear from your past employers."

"You think so? 'Cause I think you're just as much to blame as I am. They come after me and you can better believe that they're going to come after you, too."

Straightening up slightly, Ethan raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Apparently, they don't see things the same way you do. Not only did they tear up the papers on me, but I got a nice little bonus for a job well done."

Lindsey was stunned. So much so that he had to ask Ethan to repeat what he just told him.

"See, the way I have it figured, there wasn't anything to connect me to, well, anything you did when you quit Wolfram and Hart. Not only that, but I willingly offered my services to help clear up any problems with my past employment - your own papers and reports show that." Ethan watched Lindsey's face dawn with understanding. "See, I kept my word. I distracted Rupert and, with him, his Slayer. It wasn't my fault that your part of the plan fell apart so spectacularly."

Lindsey sat there, not able to believe what he was hearing. Ethan was right, of course. He had told Holland that Ethan had come to him offering to help and had suggested the payment that Ethan had demanded of him. There was no reason for Wolfram and Hart to go after Ethan. That's not saying that they wouldn't, but Lindsey guessed that they had bigger concerns at the moment than taking care of a freelancer who might have burned them a bit.

"Oh, don't look so glum," Ethan said smacking his arm. "Let me get you a drink."

The only thing that kept Lindsey from getting up and beating Ethan to death was that he simply didn't have it in him. Even after Law school, after the years of working in Wolfram and Hart, all of the back stabbing and double talk in court rooms, a non-player like Ethan was able to worm his way into having Lindsey take the fall for the whole thing. Not just that, but Ethan had managed to get paid for it as well!

In hindsight, he shouldn't be that surprised. After all, Ethan had practically led him by the hand to all of his decisions.

Including how he was supposed to get out of his contract with Wolfram and Hart.

_February 3__rd__, 1998_

"Are you sure about this?" Holland asked. "This seems rather..."

"I can understand your reservations, sir," Lindsey told him holding up a hand. "But trust me, I've looked at this from every angle and there doesn't seem to be any other way. Ethan Rayne is the man who cast the spell, he's the only one who can trace it. None of our mystics can do it, due to the interference of the Hellmouth."

Holland raised an eyebrow, still skeptical. "He's still connected to us. If we write up a new contract with Rayne, he would be in our employment, thus making it impossible for him to work on the Hellmouth without our breaching the contract with Wilkins. You know what happens then, don't you?"

"Yes, sir, I do. But, Rayne won't be going anywhere near the Hellmouth. Till we can find a way around some of the...legal issues, he'll be working for us as a consultant." Lindsey took a breath and prepared himself for the hard part. "That brings us to his fee."

"His fee?" Holland asked. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly certain that the whole reason we went after Rayne was because he double crossed us. Why is that we're paying him?"

"Sir, Rayne came to us of his own free will. Not only that, but he's been able to evade us ever since Halloween. Now, while I'm sure that we would have eventually been able to track him down, I'm not so sure that it would have been in a timely fashion."

"And you don't think that it's a bit suspicious that he just _suddenly_ came out of hiding, offering his services?" Holland questioned.

"I think the two million dollars he's asking for might have something to do with it. He has people that he needs to pay off and the fact that we've been blacklisting him from any new work has been putting that much more pressure on him," Lindsey said with a tight smile. "Sir, I know how it sounds but-"

"Do you?" Holland said. Standing up, he stared at Lindsey. "You want this firm to give someone whose trade in life is causing as much chaos as he can, literally I might add, two million dollars, just so he can finish a job that he was already paid for. I understand that I told you to make sure this was taken care of by any means necessary, but, Lindsey, did you honestly believe that there wouldn't be some limits to what could be done?"

Nodding, Lindsey said, "With all due respect, sir, this is the first break that I've had in months. The contract with Wilkins is air tight – there's absolutely nothing we can do about it. We can't even get within a mile of the Hellmouth, physically or mystically. And Rayne came to us. The money isn't going to him, it's going to pay the people that Rayne owes. Without it, he won't be able to make it to us alive."

"And then what? Rayne will have the answer to our problem, is that it?" Holland demanded.

"No, sir," Lindsey told him. "But he will be able to collaborate with me and the details of the spell can finally be determined. Also, if he's here..."

"Then he'll be within our grasp if he tries anything again," Holland finished.

Holland watched Lindsey for a moment. He didn't seem happy about what Lindsey wanted to do, but he also saw its benefits. In the end, though, Lindsey knew he had him.

Holding up the proposal that Lindsey had typed out, Holland asked, "I suppose you have a plan as to how to get two million dollars out of the firm without anyone getting suspicious?"

Smiling, Lindsey nodded. "It's all lined outlined in the papers I handed you, sir. Different departments under your supervision…an accountant or two that are rumored to play with some numbers. Things like that."

"I hope you know what you're doing, Lindsey. I would hate to hear about one of my best lawyers being found involved in something of this magnitude." Holland nodded his head one last time before returning to the papers Lindsey had given him, signaling that the meeting was over.

Walking out of Holland's office, he couldn't help but not care about his boss's parting words. The threat was clear, of course. If anything went wrong, Lindsey would be the one to burn for it and Holland wouldn't know anything. That was fine with him. The hard part was finished. Once the money made it out of the firm and into the accounts he had set up, Lindsey would launch the next part of the plan.

_March 4__th__, 1998_

Holland reacted pretty much as Lindsey had expected. Though, as he stood inside of his supervisor's office, it was hard for Lindsey not to feel slightly unnerved. He had not only told Holland Manners that he was quitting, but that he was getting out of his contract and basically blackmailing the firm in order to make it happen. Manners had listened to the news, leaned back in his chair, steepled his hands and stared at him. The man's eyes bored into his own, but Lindsey made sure not to flinch or falter. It was important to show that he wasn't joking or frightened in any way.

"Lindsey, would you mind repeating that? I'm fairly certain that you just threatened to use files that you couldn't possibly have, let alone shouldn't know about, against me and other Junior Partners if we didn't tear up your contract. I couldn't have possibly heard that, now could I?"

"Yes, sir, you did," Lindsey said thickly.

The two men continued to stare at each other, neither giving an inch. Lindsey was certain that if something didn't happen soon, he would crack. The money had all been taken care of, hidden away safely from anyone who might look for it. Most of it was taken out of any bank it might have been in and kept on hand, that which wasn't spent anyway. Ethan had taken care of a lot of the outside details through people and demons that he knew, all of them having no connection to the firm what-so-ever. But none of that would mean anything if Holland called security in to take care of him.

"Change of heart, Lindsey? I can understand, we've all been there. Maybe I've asked too much of you with your current project. But, I only did so because I felt that you were the best man for the job," Holland said.

There was concern in his voice and, if Lindsey was right, disappointment. It wasn't real though - not all of it, anyway. The only thing that Holland was disappointed about was that Lindsey wouldn't be able to work on his project anymore and if that was the case, he would have to be taken care of.

"Maybe you should take a few days off. Relax a little bit, rethink your decision maybe," Holland suggested.

"I don't need time off," Lindsey said firmly. "And I don't need time to rethink this decision. I know what I _need_ to do, _sir_."

Shaking his head sadly, Holland leaned forward. "You're quite sure?"

Lindsey nodded his head. As Holland reached for the phone, Lindsey said quickly, "I wouldn't."

Holland stopped as he picked up the receiver. "Oh?"

"The, uh, files that I have. I'm not dumb enough to have them on me, or anywhere you can find them. I also have it so that if anything should happen to me, all of them will be made public along with the paper work, with your signature on them, giving me access to them. The firm might not be so forgiving when they find out that you had someone of my status going through classified information on his own with no supervision."

This got Holland to stop. "My signature?"

"Yes, sir. In the course of my investigation into Wilkins' contract with our firm, you gave me permission to get any and all files that I deemed necessary. Every single thing that I have on this firm came from you. Even if they don't bring you down, which seems unlikely, everyone here will know about Project Avatar along with other side projects of yours, not to mention some of the more disturbing things this firm has done. Let's not forget that not all of them are strictly kosher, even by our standards."

Lindsey knew that he had his attention, but not enough to make sure that he was completely in the clear. He still needed to get Holland to understand what was going on. If he didn't, then the moment he thought that it was safe, Holland would have someone from the wet works team take him out.

"I told you what I want, sir. My contract? Gone. My personal file? Gone. Basically, I want anything that connects me to this firm erased." Catching Holland's eye, he added, "I'm serious, sir. I refuse to _bend_ on any of this."

The quirk of the eyebrow was all it took for Lindsey to see that Holland had caught on. It still didn't mean he was out of the woods, though. Holland could still decide that this wasn't worth the risk and have him dealt with.

Putting the phone down, Holland said, "Well, I can't say that I didn't try. I only hope that you understand what you're doing here, Lindsey. Most of your...requests can be taken care of. However, there is the matter of the money you requested last month. It seems as if Accounting took it personally when someone discovered that two of their own were siphoning money from the firm. It's to be expected, really. The Senior Partners did have them skinned alive after all. Either way, they're tracing the money. It's only a matter of time before one of them sees that it went into this department. When you leave, that'll send up red flags, especially considering that you've managed to do so by twisting my arm.

"Accounting has their own records. They aren't made public, mind you. But it will mean that certain factions in the firm may see you as an...easy target to blame for the misinformation and missing finances. They _will_ come after you, Lindsey."

Lindsey nodded his head, taking that in. He had figured that Wolfram and Hart might look for him, it was to be expected and the reason why he needed Holland to understand that it was all to get at the Avatar. They needed Holland to try and use his influence to keep them from getting too close, if at all possible. Though Lindsey hadn't expected Accounting to be the department to do the chasing.

"Understood, sir."

Without another word, Lindsey walked swiftly out of Holland's office and out of the building. He didn't bother to go back to his office, he had removed anything from there that he would need and everything else was of little importance to him. No one tried to stop him as he left. In fact, a few of the security guards had nodded to him as he walked out the door. He had made it out with his life and limb intact.

Walking across the street, Lindsey got in the passenger side of a car.

"I take it everything went according to plan?" Ethan asked from the driver seat.

"I'm here, aren't I?" Lindsey asked, annoyed.

Grinning, Ethan pulled out into traffic. "Cheer up, you just blackmailed your way out of the most demonic law firm this dimension knows _and_ ripped them off for two million dollars, not to mention saving your soul from them. Besides, when all of this is said and done, you'll be able to write your own contract and go back to making deals for trolls on bridge occupation or whatever it is you do there."

"Can you just drive?" Lindsey snapped, irritably. "The sooner we get out of L.A., the better."

"Keep in mind, there's still a lot of preparation to do."

"I know, I know." Lindsey looked out the window as the buildings passed by.

He knew that he should be happy. He had done something that no one else had ever been able to do. He had cleanly quit Wolfram and Hart.

Ethan was right, though. They still had a long road ahead of them before they could even think of going into Sunnydale.

Settling himself into the seat, Lindsey closed his eyes and let himself sleep.

_Present Day_

"You son of a bitch, bastard," Lindsey growled. Turning to face Ethan, Lindsey glared. "You God damned bastard."

Still grinning, Ethan said, "Now, don't take it personally. It was just business."

"Business? _Business?_" Lindsey stood up, leaning heavily on his good leg and balling his fist. "You marked me for the rest of my life. You ruined everything I've ever worked for!"

"Me? I don't remember doing anything to you." Ethan looked him up and down. "Don't do anything rash, boy. I'd have your insides coming out of your mouth faster than you could throw your first punch."

Ethan had the power to do it, Lindsey knew. The point was that he didn't find that he cared all that much. What did he have left to lose? Ethan was his one last chance to get his life back. Sure, Lindsey had learned a lot in the past year as the two of them prepared but he didn't have near enough connections to get anything going on his own, not with Wolfram and Hart going after him whole heartedly. Ethan was the one who knew where to get what they needed, knew who had what information and could get them in all the right places.

Without Ethan, Lindsey was screwed.

Lifting his fist, Lindsey was ready to start punching when an explosion sounded from outside. The blast was close enough to break the front windows and rattle the rest of the bar. Shielding himself from the flying glass, Lindsey hit the ground, followed closely by Ethan.

Ears ringing, Lindsey picked himself off the ground, hissing as his right leg screamed in protest. Orange lights from the fire outside danced on the walls of the bar and smoke started to make its way in from the broken windows. Car alarms blared making it hard to hear anything over the noise. Brushing glass out his hair, Lindsey started for the door, grabbing his cane as his leg threatened to give out under him. Pushing his way outside, Lindsey was stopped from going any further due to the roaring fire not even ten feet away.

Ethan stumbled out a few seconds after him, stopping almost right next to him. "Good, Lord. That was my car."

"Could be the firm," Lindsey reasoned. "Though they usually don't make the mistake of missing a mark like this."

"Why go for the car? Both of us were in the bar." Ethan shook his head. "No, this doesn't feel like a hit."

"Really? 'Cause certainly looks like one." Lindsey looked around the area. The bar was out of the way enough that there weren't any homes or businesses nearby but, sooner or later, people would be swarming the area. As it was, the few patrons from the bar were starting to make their way outside.

"This was a message," Ethan said. "Someone wanted to get our attention."

"Someone?" Lindsey shielded his eyes as the fire flared higher. "Who the hell could that be? And why 'us'? It could just as easily be someone you pissed off in the past."

"First off, the things I've crossed in my past wouldn't resort to something as tacky as a car bomb. Secondly," Ethan reasoned, fixing Lindsey with a look, "do you honestly believe that something like this just happened to take place when you and I got together?"

Instead of arguing, Lindsey watched the fire as it consumed the car. The driver most likely didn't get out in time or had been killed before the bomb went off. That meant that things were going to get a lot more complicated once the local law enforcement got involved. His truck was still where he parked it, thankfully devoid of any kind of fire. Pulling his keys out from his pocket, he started for the truck.

"I don't remember asking if you wanted a ride," Lindsey said as Ethan fell into step next to him.

"Whoever blew up that car meant it for both of us," Ethan told him. "If we have a common enemy, then it's best we work together till we can find out who it is and deal with them."

"You mean, so you can throw me in front of them the second things rough or when it'll save your own ass? No thanks." Lindsey grabbed the handle and went to open the door when Ethan slammed his hand on it.

"Be that as it may, but don't you think it might be a bit prudent to at least check your car for a device as well?" Ethan released the door and stepped back a few paces. "But, what do I know, hmm? I'm only out to save my own ass."

Lindsey slowly took his hand off the door handle, cursing himself for being so careless. It took a bit of effort but he was able to crouch on down, hissing in pain. He still wasn't used to life with his leg this way. He checked under the truck for a few minutes until he was satisfied that there was nothing out of place as far as he could see. When he stood up, Ethan was sitting in the passenger seat looking at the interior with the same amount of distaste as he had for the bar a few minutes earlier.

Glaring at him, Lindsey got in the driver side. He didn't even know how Ethan had managed to get in without him hearing or seeing anything. The bastard probably didn't even think that there had been a bomb either, just using it as a distraction.

"Oh, cheer up," Ethan told him. "If anything, you can try to think of a way to double cross me if you're so sure that I'm going to."

Grumbling, Lindsey put the seatbelt on and started checking his mirrors. On the rearview mirror was a plain white business card with only a phone number on it. Taking it down, he flipped it over and sure enough, nothing else was on that side. Ethan grabbed it from him, looking both curious and wary.

With one more glance around, Lindsey started the car and pulled out of the parking lot, checking behind him the entire time he drove. If someone was following him, he'd see them easy on the empty road. If he was lucky, maybe he'd be able to push Ethan out onto the road if they showed up. While it was a tempting thought, he couldn't do it. He had to worry more about forcing Ethan to help him than worry about killing him.

For the moment, anyway.

"Yes, ma'am, they got the message. Rayne didn't suspect a thing. Yes, both left together in McDonald's truck. No, I'm fairly certain that neither of them saw me. I'll keep an eye on them, just like you asked. I'll call you when I have something."

Closing the phone, Jason sighed. It had been too easy to pass as Ethan's driver and then set up the bomb. No one ever paid attention to the help. Shaking his head, he started the car and turned on the tracking system. Just like the bomb, slipping the tracking device onto the truck was all too easy. He'd be able to follow and never get within sight of them.

He was damn sure to make it so that he wasn't seen. There was no chance he was going to screw up, not with his employer watching closely. Besides, soon it would all be over and he wouldn't have to listen to her anymore. Damn bitch was scary, and he doubted she'd be any better if he made her angry.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Let's get right to it here since there isn't much to talk about really. This has been one of my favorite chapters to write, but that's just my own opinion. Hope you guys enjoy and, as always, thanks to Greywizard for the Beta help. Also, thanks to everyone for reading. And thanks for the reviews as well, it's always good to hear what people are thinking. On with show!

**Chapter 9**

Bobbing right, ducking left, Buffy dodged each attack. She tried to press forward but another strike came at her forcing her to move back. With a back flip, she avoided being hit and put some distance between her and her opponent. That was the problem, though. She needed to get in close but every time she got near him, he would push his own attack and force her to move away again. It was getting frustrating, but it was her own fault. She just had to push Xander into sparring with her while using his powers. While she hadn't been able to land a strike on Xander, though, he hadn't been able to do so with her, either. If it hadn't been for her Slayer reflexes and speed, however, she would have been bruised all over the place and down for the count.

Holding back for moment, Buffy watched Xander, looking for an opening. It was eerily beautiful seeing Xander like this. His arms in front of his chest, wrist bent and moving slightly back and forth. It would have looked slightly odd, but that was quickly dismissed since every time Xander moved his arms, the two tendrils of water that were floating near him moved as well. It was as if he was dancing with the liquid.

At first, Buffy had to stop herself from simply staring as Xander forced the water out of the lake. Buffy had seen him do it before, both with air and water, but then he had always been training. While it had been slightly odd and, if she admitted it, scary, to see her friend have that kind of power, it had always been in a very passive form. Excluding the night outside and the few times he went out on patrol, Buffy had never seen Xander use his bending in an offensive manner. Of course, Buffy snapped out of it when Xander began sending the water at her like twin whips.

"Something funny?" Buffy asked as she looked at Xander's grinning face.

"Nothing, just enjoying the moment is all. Don't get a lot of chances to practice like this," he commented.

"Well, it looks like you could use it," Buffy smirked. "All that power and you can't even hit a little girl like me?"

"You don't seem to be faring much better," Xander joked.

Buffy's grin disappeared at the comment. It was stupid, of course, but something as silly as calling her own abilities into question when she was already doing that very thing, first with Faith and now Xander, was quite annoying. But the effect was immediate, as the Slayer part of her roared at the challenge, at the idea of pitting herself against a challenger and defeating them completely.

Rushing forward, Buffy faked left before rolling right. She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and got out of the way just in time to avoid a lashing from one of Xander's water whips. Ducking under it, Buffy side stepped a jet of water that was sent at her. Pivoting on her foot, Buffy jumped toward Xander, attempting to tackle him to the ground. The only problem with that plan was that by the time Buffy got near Xander, he had jumped back nearly fifteen feet landing in a crouch.

"Gotta be faster than that, Buff," Xander called to her.

Grunting with frustration, Buffy bounced back to her feet and started circling Xander. The clearing in the park was big enough to give them more than enough room to move around, but it worked towards Xander's advantage more than her own. He could move around a lot better than she could now and he worked much better at long distance. He was much more agile than herself, not to mention the fact that he could jump several feet in the air without any restrictions to his movement. What she had been trying to do was corner him and then take him down. It was proving to be a bit more difficult then she initially anticipated.

"Stop jumping around and I'll show you how fast I can be," Buffy growled.

Waggling his eyebrows, Xander shot back, "Hey, Buffy, I'm flattered but I don't think Angel would be too comfortable with that."

Looking around quickly, Buffy grabbed a rock off the ground and threw it at Xander's head, only to have him deflect it with splash of water. The second Xander defended himself against the missile, Buffy ran at him. He seemed surprised to see Buffy coming at him once the water was out of his line of sight. She was so sure that he had him this time. Even if he jumped out of the way, Buffy was close enough at this point that she could grab him before he got too far. So, it was confusing when the world suddenly went upside down and Buffy found herself on her back, staring up at the sky with a headache.

"Ow," Buffy mumbled. Rolling onto her stomach to push herself up, she sucked in air as freezing cold ice touched whatever skin was exposed from her workout clothes. "Ice? What...how did you do that?"

Reaching down to help her up, Xander said, "It's ice, Buffy. Kind of falls under the definition of water."

"And you were planning on telling us you could do this when?" Buffy asked. She wasn't angry that he didn't tell anyone, since it was just one more thing to add to the list of things he could do. She was just upset that she hadn't known and couldn't work around it.

Xander rubbed the back of his neck. "Didn't think I needed to. Ice, water. It seems like it would have been pretty obvious. Plus, um, that was kind of instinct with the whole ice thing. Nice idea forcing me to block, so I didn't see you at first, though."

Rubbing the back of her head, Buffy said, "Yeah, well your instinct sucks for me."

"If it makes you feel any better, you probably would have caught me if it wasn't for that."

"You seemed pretty sure of yourself back there," Buffy said continuing to stretch. "You weren't holding back on me, were you?"

Shrugging, Xander replied, "Maybe a little, but not enough that it would have made a difference. Training by myself is one thing, sparring with someone is completely different. Besides, do you really think that I'd give up the chance to douse you with water while you're wearing a tank top?"

"Pig," Buffy joked slapping his arm, using more strength then she needed to.

Laughing, Xander rubbed his quickly bruising arm. "So, honestly. How'd I do?"

"Hey, did you see me get anywhere near you? I'd say that was pretty good."

"Yeah, but that was mostly because I had the water whips keeping you away from me. But I didn't land a hit, either."

Buffy shrugged. "You can't expect to beat everyone you come across."

"Says the girl who wanted to take my head off a few seconds ago," Xander teased.

It would have been easy to deflect the joke or brush it off, but Buffy knew that he also had a point. At the end of the day, Xander was trusting her just as much as she was trusting him. It didn't matter if she was slightly wary about what he could do now or that it felt weird talking about it, he deserved it. Maybe it might even help him a bit.

"I'm the Slayer," she said, "I can't help it. It makes me all...twitchy when I'm fighting. It's like I have to be the best - I have to beat whatever I come up against. If I don't..."

"Then you start feeling more aggressive than before?" Xander finished for her.

Looking over at him, Buffy lifted an eyebrow. "You could say that. That obvious?"

"There's a certain amount of single mindedness about you at times, yeah. But, let's be honest here. You pretty much beat the bad guy even if you have to go around for a second go."

"Well, that's all I'm saying," Buffy told him. "Even with the amount of power you have, some people you can't beat without thinking outside the box."

Xander jumped across the clearing and picked up his staff off the ground, giving it a light twirl. "I know that, Buff. I get that there will be people out there that might be faster than me, stronger than me, and all of that. But you don't seem to understand something about what I can do, something that's really hard to describe, I guess.

"One on one, I should be able to take on any non-bender outside of the toughest warriors, and even then it might not be enough. The Avatar can take on armies, Buffy. Armies!"

"Armies?" Buffy whispered surprised.

"This stuff should be coming naturally to me. I've _literally_ learned it all before. But instead, I'm struggling every step of the way."

"You think I didn't have to train?" Buffy asked, coming up next to him. "I train almost every day and do at least one sweep of the cemeteries every night. It doesn't happen overnight, Xander."

"But...what's wrong with me?"

"News flash, you're not perfect. I don't care what this whole Avatar thing means, but I do know that it can't mean that you're going to never have to struggle. I mean, you told us that the Avatar keeps getting born over and over again, right? You're going to tell me that _all _of them mastered the elements in a matter of weeks?"

"OK, well, no. But-"

"But you thought that you'd be the uber-Avatar, huh?" Buffy smirked in amusement.

Pulling a face at first, Xander quickly smiled. "Pretty stupid, huh?"

"You really want me to answer that?" Buffy joked. Of course, that was until water splashed over her, drenching her completely. Eyes wide and mouth hanging open with disbelief, Buffy stared at Xander while he continued to grin at her.

"Hey, what do you know? I guess I just needed to train a bit more like you said."

Slowly, Buffy stalked forward, prepared to introduce Xander to a severe beating. He continued backing away, hands up, but Xander couldn't stop from laughing, which only made Buffy angrier. Stopping, she turned her head to the left. Did she just hear something?

"Hey, everything alright?" Xander asked growing serious.

"Shh." Buffy turned fully to where she thought she heard the noise. Rustling of leaves, the bushes moving, something like that. Right now, though, the only sounds she could hear were the birds in the trees and the distant sounds of cars outside of the park on the street. She tried to focus her hearing, straining to make out anything out of place, but there wasn't anything. It could have just been her imagination, but she doubted it. Her instincts told her that someone was there and after this long as the Slayer, she trusted her instincts more than what she could see.

Buffy felt Xander come up next to her, staff in hand and ready to strike. Neither said a word as the continued to search the outline of the trees surrounding them. The tension was thick as they waited for something to happen, but still, neither of them broke their concentration. After several minutes, Buffy was ready to stop looking, feeling that whatever was there must have left by now. Before she could speak, however a branch snapped near a cluster of trees.

Xander beat Buffy to the punch, twisting his waist before swinging his staff in an upwards motion. A gust of wind followed the movement, bending branches back and kicking up dust. It wasn't nearly as concentrated as Buffy had seen him perform, but it didn't seem any less powerful for being so widely dispersed. Besides, it got the job done.

"OW! Son of a bitch!"

"Faith?" Buffy asked in confusion.

Stumbling out of the foliage, Faith glared at Xander. "A heads up would be nice next time you decide to go psycho on the trees," she snapped bits of leaves and twigs out of her hair.

"Crap, Faith, I didn't know it was you." Xander lowered his staff looking apologetic. "Buffy heard a noise, and then I heard a noise, we didn't know who was out there."

"So you just thought to attack? Christ, what if it had been some kid or something, ya know?" Faith asked. "Aren't you supposed to protect people or some crap like that?"

"Hey, it was an accident," Buffy said stepping in. "I was ready to go in there myself before Xander did something. Besides, why didn't you call out to us or something, let us know you were there?"

"Got snagged by a few bushes, I was trying to get out of it," Faith told her still giving Xander a dirty look.

"Well, at least you're out of the bush," Xander said hesitantly.

Eyeing him darkly, Faith said, "Yeah, remind me to thank you for that, will ya?"

"Something we can do for you, Faith?" Buffy asked. There had always been tension between herself and Faith, though for a while she thought the two of them had smoothed out some of their rough patches. As of late, that tension was back in full swing. The only difference was that she was directing not only at herself, but at her friends as well, especially Xander.

"Watcher Junior said that you'd be here. Said you needed to come back for your evaluation," Faith told her.

"Crap," Buffy exclaimed. "I completely forgot about that."

"No big, B. Lots of running, some cardio. Besides, Wes seemed glad to have a chance to catch his breath. Gave him a run for his money." Sticking her hands into her pockets, Faith glanced at the ground, wet and torn up from the sparing match. "Looks like a party."

"Yeah, it was definitely not what I was expecting," Buffy said, putting her current feelings for Faith out of her mind.

Xander nodded his head in agreement. "Kind of a stalemate. I couldn't even touch Buffy."

"I bet," Faith muttered under her breath, quickly adding, "Slayers are fast, born for this kind of thing."

"Hey, anytime you feel up to a little sparring match, the offer still stands, Faith," Xander told her.

Snorting, Faith said, "I think one roll with you was enough. I like something a bit more durable, thanks."

Buffy looked between Faith and Xander. That was definitely an interesting choice of words in her opinion and, despite what some people thought, she wasn't completely incapable of putting things together. That remark along with Faith's line of questioning in the cemetery last week and it was pretty obvious that something had gone on between Faith and Xander that neither of them were talking about. When Xander opened his mouth to say something, stopped himself and lowered his head, it was all Buffy needed as a confirmation.

"I'll meet up with you later on for patrol," Faith called over her shoulder as she turned to leave.

Once she was gone, Buffy asked, "Anything you want to tell me?"

"Would you believe me if I said absolutely nothing happened?" Xander asked glibly.

Frowning slightly, Buffy said, "Listen, you know that it's a bit...uncomfortable talking about you and anything even remotely sexual, but if you need to talk, I'm here."

"Thanks," he said earnestly. "I know I shouldn't have expected too much from her, and it was stupid, but...I don't know."

Buffy was surprised, but she wasn't about to tell Xander that. She knew that it shouldn't be that much of a shock but maybe she had just expected a bit more from him. He was still a guy, but Buffy had always figured that Xander was a bit better than most men his age. Still completely flooded with hormones, but able to overcome them. After all, he hadn't taken advantage of her last year with the botched love spell. Then again, Faith was probably the one who did the advantage taking. It was definitely more her style. Maybe that's what was causing the problem between him and Faith. Either way, it shouldn't affect her own relationship with him.

"Listen, I have to get going," Buffy said. "I won't say anything to anyone, but you know you're going to have to tell Willow about this. Better she hears about it from you than Faith making some remark."

"Yeah, I guess," he replied softly.

Squeezing his shoulder, Buffy grabbed her workout bag and left the clearing. Faith was nowhere to be seen, which was probably just as well. She had a few choice words for her and how she treated her friends.

* * *

The Bronze wasn't particularly packed as Xander leaned against the wall in the corner. If it wasn't for the fact that he was supposed to meet Buffy here later to talk and later go on patrol, he wouldn't have been there at all. He was still feeling rather depressed about his encounter with Faith earlier that afternoon and if he had his own way, he'd be either be training or going over Wesley's father's book some more. Giles had practically kicked him out of the apartment, however, telling him that he needed to relax, that he was to tense and that it could make him sloppy. Xander figured that Giles just wanted the place to himself for a few hours.

He probably looked like even more of a loser, just standing there not even attempting to make conversation with anyone, but he didn't care. He was missing more and more classes as he threw himself into his training and it was probably only a matter of time before he got kicked out of school. He knew that he should care, that he should be bothered by that fact, but he simply couldn't care. Giles had caught on to his truancy early on but, oddly enough, didn't try to force him to go to classes. He had sat Xander down one night and talked to him about it, about what his plans for the future were and how he thought he might accomplish them. It was a shock to the older man when Xander, once again, explained to him that being the Avatar meant he didn't get a normal life. Buffy might be able to go to school and slay at night, but the Avatar was on call all the time. By the end of the night, Xander had at least agreed that if he really couldn't finish high school the normal way, he would attend enough classes to at least not be expelled and later take his GED. Giles was a little defensive over how he glanced over Buffy's dedication to the world, and Xander had agreed he was out of line. She was just as screwed as he was.

Taking a sip of his water, Xander's frown deepened. What he wouldn't give for someone who understood what it was to be what he was. Someone that he could talk about the world of the Avatar with, without having to explain every little detail of it. But, short of Aang during their few training sessions and conversations, he had no one. So, he kept his mouth shut most of the time. After all, there were only so many times you could take having to explain why he would sometimes chuckle if someone mentioned bears.

Xander probably would have continued moping but he noticed a crowd of people starting to form by the pool table, a few of them egging someone on. Moving from the wall, Xander made his way through the circle of people, trying to get a glimpse of what was going on. Knowing this town, everyone could be staring at a demon ready to tear all of their faces off and they wouldn't know it.

Next to the pool table wasn't a demon though, it was Willow. Willow with Percy's hands around her throat and that was all Xander needed to see to get him moving. Pushing through the throng, he grabbed one of Percy's arms and twisted his joints, forcing him to let go of Willow. Going with the momentum, Xander spun, still holding Percy's locked arm, and tossed him away from Willow.

"Back off! You stay the hell away from her!" Xander shouted at him. Not bothering to listen to his reply, Xander watched him run off before turning to check on Willow. However, he wasn't exactly prepared to see her in a leather get up, especially not one with a corset that made even Willow's chest show cleavage.

"Xander!" Willow exclaimed.

"That's, uh, that's definitely new," Xander gulped, trying to force his eyes away from Willow's display.

"You're alive!" Willow grabbed him in a hug, massaging his back.

At the touch of Willow's hands on his body, Xander's brain automatically went into overdrive. It was hard not have any reaction to what she was doing, especially since it was only a few months ago that the two of them were sneaking around with each other and making out every chance they got. But, if anyone asked him, he did not wait a minute or two before he stopped hugging her back. Granted, it was only when her hands started reaching down the back of his pants did he jump away.

"Hands! Hands in new places!"

Looking puzzled for a second, Willow suddenly sneered at him. "You're _alive_."

Wait a minute, something was wrong here. _Willow_ was wrong. "Will, you alright?" Xander asked searching her eyes for something.

"No! Everything's different!" Willow yelled at him.

Xander continued watching Willow, this time able to keep his eyes on her face instead of other parts of her. Someone came up next to him, Buffy by the sound of her voice, but he didn't hear what she was saying. Something was off about Willow that went beyond her outfit and attitude, something that he probably wouldn't have been able to pick up if it wasn't for him being the Avatar now.

"You," Willow growled at Buffy.

There it was. It happened so fast that if he hadn't been staring into her eyes Xander probably would have missed it. When Willow recognized Buffy, her eyes flashed yellow for the briefest of moments. This wasn't Willow, not his Willow, not anymore. He didn't know how, but this was a demon inside Willow's body - she was a vampire! He knew that he should have acted, should have done something, but he couldn't. The shock of seeing Willow as a vampire was too much for him.

Willow moved to leave, something that Xander only barely noticed in his daze. Though he had enough presence of mind to grab Buffy's arm when she went to go after her.

"Don't," he told her sadly. "That's not Willow."

"What?" Buffy asked confused.

"That...that isn't Willow, Buffy." It took him a moment to get his thoughts together, but finally he said, "Vampire."

Still confused, Buffy looked at Xander almost as if she was asking him if he was joking. When she realized that he wasn't, she didn't even question it. Her arm went slack in his hand and her face fell.

"Giles," she mumbled. "We...we need to let Giles know."

Shaking his head, Xander swallowed the lump in his throat before saying, "We have to go after her."

"What? You just stopped me from going after her."

"Buffy, think about it. Do you really want an evil vampire Willow running around out there? Better question, do you think that _Willow_ would want to be like that, to hurt anyone? I just…I needed a minute and you could have gotten hurt going after her, not knowing what…what she is now."

She wanted to argue with him, he could see that on her face, but her eyes told him that she understood what he was saying. It would be hard, and they would cry about it later, but for right now, they knew what they had to do.

Rushing out the back door of the Bronze, they quickly looked up and down the alley but didn't see any sign of Willow. Jumping up, Xander grabbed onto the top rung of the ladder leading up to the roof. From three stories up, he was able to get a better view of the area but he still couldn't see her anywhere.

"Anything?" Buffy called up to him.

Letting go, Xander dropped to the ground, using an air current to slow his decent, landing in a crouch. "Nothing," he told her shaking his head. "Vampires are fast, though. She could have bolted into one of the tunnels."

"She could be anywhere by now, then. We don't even know what direction she could be headed in." Buffy closed her eyes. "This doesn't make any sense."

"I know. It's...it's unreal," Xander said despondently.

"No, that's not what I meant. I mean this makes no sense, how could Willow be a vampire? We just saw her this morning, it take at least one day, usually three, before you turn."

"So how the hell is she a vampire now?" Xander questioned, realizing what she meant.

Buffy shook her head. "I don't know. I mean...you're positive that she was...was a vampire?"

"Yeah, Buff, I'm sure. I saw it in her eyes. Trust me, if you had waited a moment, you would have felt it."

"Alright, let's think about this. What looks like a vampire but isn't a vampire?" Buffy asked.

"A...um, vampire?" Xander said weakly.

Blowing her hair out of her eyes, Buffy shook her head. "We need Giles."

"We're telling you, Giles. It was Willow," Xander said.

* * *

"Yo-you're sure?" Giles asked.

Putting his face in his hands, Xander resisted the urge to scream.

Whether Giles really doubted them or if he just didn't want to believe it, he didn't know. For the past hour, Xander and Buffy had gone over the scene at the Bronze and their short search afterwards, including Buffy's small epiphany, several times. Each time, Giles seemed to come to a conclusion only to dismiss it and ask them to start again. Needless to say, it was getting more than a little annoying for the two of them.

"OK, that's it. I'm going to go slam my head into a wall until he starts to say something useful," Xander said frustrated.

Giles shook his head. "Xander, you have to understand, what you're saying...what it would mean..."

"We don't want to believe it either," Buffy said softly. "In fact, I still kind of don't."

"Buffy, the amount of time that it takes for a vampire to turn varies greatly. Several factors are involved. The time of day, the vampire who's siring them," Giles told her.

Folding her arms, Buffy asked, "Have you ever heard of it happening in three hours?"

"Well, uh, no," Giles admitted. "But that's not to say that it hasn't happened."

"Wait, does this mean you finally believe us?"

"I never said I didn't believe you," Giles explained. "It's simply...there are any number of possibilities. You, yourself, say that you never actually saw Willow in her vampire form, just a quick change in eye color."

"Hey, guys. What's everyone talking about?" Willow asked walking into the library, this time dressed in a pink, fuzzy, sweater and skirt.

Buffy and Xander moved instantly. Getting behind Willow, Buffy grabbed both her arms and twisted them behind her back. "Xander! Get the holy water!"

"Hey! Ow!" Willow cried out, confusion and pain on her face as Buffy held her firmly in place.

Taking a breath, Xander raised his arms in the direction of front desk were Giles kept the Holy Water. The loose corks popped open instantly as the water shot out of the bottles and into the air. With more grace then anyone would have thought him capable of, Xander moved his right arm in a swift, flowing motion, pointing his hand at the disabled Willow. The Holy water, under his command, shot forward and splashed against Willow, making the girl sputter and shiver. After a moment of nothing happening, except Willow looking frightened out of her mind, Xander and Buffy looked at each other in confusion.

"Hey, Giles, you didn't happen to get all frugal on us and switch the Holy water with tap, did you?" Xander asked.

"Guys? Can someone tell me what's going on?" Willow asked, her voice shaking.

Buffy quickly let her friend go, spinning her around and looking at her, inspecting her to make sure that there wasn't any latent marks from Holy water burns.

"OK, this is getting a bit freaky," Willow said before being engulfed in a hug by the blonde Slayer. "OK, maybe just not so tight," Willow squeaked only to be hit from behind by another crushing hug by Xander. "Um, Giles?"

Relief filled the ex-Watcher's eyes. He had apparently believed them more then he let on.

When Buffy finally let her go, Willow stood still as if any movement on her part might cause everyone to either attack her or get touchy feely with her. "Um...anyone want to explain why everyone's acting like they took a bunch of drugs? It's not drugs, is it?"

"Willow, you're _alive_," Buffy said happily.

"Most of the time, yeah," Willow said looking to Giles for an answer.

Clearing his throat and decidedly not misty eyed, he said, "There, um, well, there seems to be something rather strange going on."

"Years of training and that's the best you can come up with?" Xander said with a nervous laugh.

"Willow, we saw you at the Bronze tonight. You...you were a vampire. At least, we think you were," Buffy said gently.

"A _vampire_?" Willow said incredulously.

"Seriously, Willow. That was definitely you. Or at least, someone that looked exactly like you, and, well, knew who we are," Xander said seriously.

Willow shook out her hair, trying to dry off. "But how can I be a vampire?"

"Hell if I know. Unless you have some evil twin that likes to dress up like a dominatrix." Xander paused for a minute and shook the image that would have certainly earned him a slug in the arm out of his head. "If you weren't here right now, and you know, not dead, I'd swear it was you."

"So...if it's not me, who was it?"

* * *

The vampire that had once been Willow Rosenberg stalked the through the streets of Sunnydale. So much was different, here. People had the audacity to walk the streets when the sun was down, for starters. None of them had the proper respect or fear for vampires. They didn't cower or run unless she attacked them. Of course, that had been fun, for a moment anyway. But now she was stuck trying to understand what had happened, and it made her cranky.

She had debated simply going on a murder spree, causing as much destruction and chaos as possible. It certainly had it perks, but ultimately she knew that it would be pointless. If that blonde bitch, the Slayer, was in town then she might be try to put an end to all of her fun. She wanted things to be like they were before. If she had to do that one person at a time, she would.

And she knew just who to start with.

Finishing the last bit of blood, vampire Willow dropped the girl's limp form to the floor. She took one last appreciative look at her victim, always liking to see her work afterwards. Xander had always liked to stay with her afterwards, never chiding her for playing with her food. He would have liked this one with her shoulder length brown hair, a slight innocent look to her. He always liked the innocent look.

The taste had been off to her, though. The girl couldn't have been more than eighteen yet she tasted _old_, like some of the demons she had tasted. At least her annoying stammering about being able to "help her" and "get her home" was over with, now. This place wasn't home, there was no more "home". But, she could make it more like home. With a smile, she started out of the alleyway. She knew just where to start, too.

* * *

"Alright, so it's not you," Buffy told Willow. "But that still leaves us with someone who looks just like you out there and she didn't seem in the best of moods."

"We have to find her," Xander said. "There's no telling what she could do or the amount of damage she could cause. The longer she's out there, the worse it will be."

Moving to the weapons locker, Buffy started taking out stakes, crosses, and a few other items. "There's no telling where she might have gone. Best we can do is a sweep of every major haunt in town. I don't think she'll go to any cemeteries, but we if we can't find her anywhere else, we'll go over them, too."

"Um, guys. What are we gonna do with, uh, you know, her? When we find her, I mean," Willow asked.

Exchanging a look with Buffy, Xander shook his head. He didn't know what they should do, or even if he would be able to stake Willow's doppelganger if he had the chance. It was bad enough that he staked Jesse, even if by accident. But, with Willow, even just someone who looked like her, he just didn't think he had it in him.

"Let's cross that bridge when we get to it. Right now, let's just find her." Buffy slammed the door shut on the locker. "I'm going to call Angel and have him meet us back at the Bronze."

"You think she'll return there?" Giles asked, loading a mini-crossbow.

Buffy shook her head as she pulled out the phone by the checkout desk and started dialing. "Doubt it, but maybe he'll be able to pick up a trail or something. Anything we can use to track her down."

Taking his staff in hand, Xander grabbed a single cross and tucked it into his belt. "I think I might hit the sky. I can cover more ground that way and might be able to spot her faster if she's on the move."

Everyone stopped moving and stared and Xander. Even Willow, who was still wrapping her head around the idea of an evil twin, looked at him warily.

"Er, Xander, are you sure that's the best idea?" Giles asked.

"Guys, I'll be fine, trust me. Gliding is nothing. It's one of the first things an Airbender learns. I get it, weird for you and all that, but we don't have time to play this game right now." Xander shrugged his jacket off, rolling his shoulders a bit. "It's nighttime, no one will see me and if they do, they'll just ignore it like everything else in this town."

Ignoring the glances everyone gave each other, Xander continued loosening up. He had only used the glider twice since the night outside of his old home, both times without anyone knowing about it. Defying gravity was another one of those things that seemed to make everyone look at him funny and had people whisper when they thought he wasn't paying attention. One of these days, he was going to have to really have a talk with everyone about why they didn't trust him or whatever their problem was. One day, but not today.

He was already out in the hall when he heard Willow call his name. Stopping, he let her catch up to him.

"Xander," she said breathlessly. "I just...be careful, OK?"

Smiling, he put his hand on her shoulder. "Willow, I'll be fine. Believe it or not, I know what I'm doing."

"No, not that. Well, that too. But, well, I meant if you come across me. You know, the other me." Willow shuffled her feet a bit, the unasked question hanging between them.

It was at this point that Xander realized that he had to make a choice.

It was something that everyone had to ask themselves at some point or another, most of the time at several times throughout their lives. But now it was Xander's turn, and his was a bit heavier than the normal person's.

This was the moment where he decided what kind of Avatar he was going to be.

Was he the kind of Avatar that would take a life or not? Yes, the thing that looked like Willow may be a demon, but it was still something living, in not so many words. He felt a big connection to Aang and his beliefs, bigger than he had thought it had been, and Aang had never taken a life – well, not on purpose, anyway. Past Avatars had all chosen different paths, each fitting their own personalities, though they all put the world and the safety of others first. But all of them had to answer that question at some point.

As Xander stood there, looking into Willow's pleading eyes, he didn't have an answer.

* * *

For the past two hours, Xander had flown around Sunnydale looking for Willow's evil twin but he hadn't had any luck. He had done several passes over the cemeteries and the parks but there wasn't anything going on there, not even the normal vampire and demon activity. At this point, he was ready to head back to the High School and wait for the others. There were still several more hours till sunrise, but it didn't seem like he was going to be having any luck on his own. Maybe the rest of them had found something; at least a clue as to where she came from or where she was headed.

On his way back, passing by the elementary school, something caught his eye.

In the playground, two people were on the swings. At this time of night, that was awfully suspicious, even if it wasn't vampire Willow. Changing the wind pattern around him, Xander guided the glider to the ground, landing a dozen feet away from the late night swingers. Somehow, he doubted that it was coincidence that it was the leather clad version of Willow. On the swing next to her was a little girl, maybe nine or ten, dressed in her pajamas. The child's eyes were red and puffy from crying as she sat on her swing, not moving a muscle.

With a twirl of his wrist, Xander closed the glider. Tensing as vampire Willow reached her hand out and gently started stroking the little girl's hair, he tried to prepare himself. Ready to strike at any moment, Xander let her be for now. If he made the wrong move, the girl might die.

"Do you remember when I had long hair?" Willow asked idly. "I was so different then. So..._weak_," she said the last part with distaste. "Just like this world. It's weak, boring."

"Ooookkkaaaayyy." Xander raised an eyebrow in confusion. Shaking it off, he demanded, "Who are you?"

"I know _this_ game," Willow smiled seductively. "Who do you want me to be?"

"I want you to be the thing that lets that girl go," Xander said automatically.

Looking at the girl with the same smile, she said, "Let her go? But we need her." Continuing to stroke her hair, Willow shook her head, almost amused. "You always did need someone to hold your hand through the hard parts. I remember that from before."

"Willow, let her go," Xander said sternly, not caring if this was or wasn't actually Willow.

Moaning slightly, Willow turned to him. "So strong. So..._different_. I think I like this new you."

"I don't want to hurt you," he pleaded. It wasn't exactly a lie. Xander didn't want to fight somebody that looked like one of his oldest friends, but he would if he had to.

Yanking the girl's hair, forcing her to stand with a yelp of pain, Willow got up. "Oh, but I want you to. I like it when you hurt me."

"OK, now _that_ is just plain freaky," Xander muttered. Watching as evil Willow did a rather creepy job of running her hands up and down the young girl's body, Xander cursed himself for not taking a shot when he had the chance. With the girl in front of her, there was no way he'd be able to get Willow without hurting the girl.

"Hurt me, Xander," she purred. "Make me scream."

"This can't possibly get any worse," Xander said trying to get rid of the mental images running through his mind.

Gripping the girl's throat, Willow rolled her eyes in frustration. "You used to like hurting me, you know. Whips and chains and all sorts of things. Don't worry, you'll like it again, I promise."

"I sincerely doubt that." Getting into a stance, Xander starts to circle her, looking for an opening.

Grinning madly, Willow turned, following Xander while keeping the helpless child in front of her. "Mmm, now this looks like fun. Promise to use your big _stick_ on me?"

Seeing his opening, Xander replied, "If you insist."

Swinging his staff like a scythe, Xander sent a tight arc of air angled above Willow's head. The highly pressurized air cut through a tree branch sending it crashing down towards Willow. Even though she was surprised, it didn't slow her down any. Releasing the girl, Willow jumped back and out of the way of the tree limb. Once she was had let go, Xander jumped up, swing the staff around again, sending the falling limb toward Willow with a strong gust of wind.

Not bothering to see if he got her or not, Xander ran to the child, who was crying fresh tears. "Go! Get somewhere safe!" Giving her a light push, Xander watched as she ran into the street, hopefully towards somewhere safer than here. He would have loved to get her to that "safe place" himself, but if he didn't stop Willow, then the girl would end up food right here and now. As Xander turned, to face Willow again, he recoiled as nails racked across his chest, cutting through his shirt and into his chest.

"You didn't like my gift," Willow pouted swiping at his face. "Kids were always your favorite."

Jumping several feet back, Xander landed in a crouch, wincing as his chest burned from the cuts. Sweeping his legs out, Xander tried to force Willow back with a few air swipes. The dark version of his friend tumbled to the side, avoiding the attack, but it did make her to move further away from him. When she looked up, she had her fangs bared, but there was a definite lack of fear. If anything, she seemed to be enjoying herself which only added to the ick factor as far as Xander was concerned.

"You're not from around here, are you?" Xander questioned. He had read enough comic books and things started to make a sort of sense to the situation they were now facing. This was Willow, just not his Willow. Somehow, someone or something had created a double of her or brought her over from somewhere else. If it hadn't been for his own encounter with parallel dimensional beings, he never would have thought of it, but having your body taken over by someone in a neighboring world opened up the mind a bit.

"No, but we're going to make things like they were, make them fun again," Willow told him. "Don't you want to have fun?"

Dark Willow moved quickly to attack again, but Xander was able to keep out of reach. Dodging and ducking out of the way with an Airbender's speed, Xander was quickly seeing that Willow didn't want to kill him, at least not like this. Each strike would have hurt him, that was for sure, but none of them were lethal. There were no swipes at his throat or any other major arteries.

"Someone's been naughty," Willow said in a sing-song voice. "Someone's been playing with magic."

"Me? Magic?" Xander said avoiding another swipe of her claws. "We both know that me and magic don't work well together."

"Wonder what you'll taste like," Willow cooed, changing topics.

"Like arctic-hen. Everything tastes like arctic-hen." Jumping up and over her head, Xander twisted in mid-air. Swinging his staff, he hit Willow in the back with a gust of wind, sending her rolling.

When she got up, the playful look in her face was gone. "No more foreplay. You made me cranky. Don't worry. You can make it up to me."

"I know it's kind of clichéd to ask, but how am I supposed to make it up to you?"

Grinning, fangs shining in the street light, Willow started walking slowly toward Xander. Her arms had dropped from a fighting stance and her hands were now doing a good job of distracting him as they ran up her sides. Not enough to take his full attention, but enough to make him notice. "Give in, Xander. I know you want me. I can smell it on you. We can make this world like it should be. People screaming. Puppy screaming. _Me_ screaming." Licking her lips, she looked him up and down. "I know how people treat you here. Even if you're not my Xander, people are still the same. I can make everything much simpler for you, just like you did for me once."

"Like I did?" Xander asked quietly.

"I know I thanked you for making me like this. Over and over and over again. But now, I can do the same thing for you. Don't you want to make me happy, Xander?" Willow had let her face revert back to its human form, her eyes wide with false innocence and sadness.

"I turned you," Xander said with understanding. "Where...where you came from, I made you into a vampire. I killed you."

Smirking, Willow said, "Well, not at first. You had your fun beforehand. 'Course, I wasn't nearly as into it back then."

Feeling his stomach drop, it took everything in Xander not to bend over and throw up. What this Willow was telling him, what it meant he had done in that reality, it was almost too much. There wasn't time for that now. He had to focus on her.

"Let me free you, Xander," Willow murmured rubbing small circles on her stomach. "I know the real you. The sadistically, beautiful monster that wants to be let out."

"That's not me," Xander said firmly.

Faster than he was able to react, Willow crossed the distance she had slowly been lessening and knocked Xander to the ground. Jumping on top and straddling him, Willow knocked his staff away and started gyrating. "We both know that's not true. That kind of hate doesn't go away."

Dazed from having the wind knocked out of him (And don't think the irony was lost on him), Xander struggled to get Willow off of him. She was a vampire, though, and even if he could create whirlwinds, she beat him in the pure physical strength department. Grabbing his wrist, Willow pinned his hands above his head, licking his face as she did so.

"It won't hurt, not much. I don't have time to play with you properly," she breathed into his ear. "But soon, we'll have lots of new toys to play with. Won't that be fun?"

"OK, that's enough!"

Inhaling deeply, Xander blew out a breath, sending Willow up into the air and crashing painfully to the ground several feet away. Looking around quickly, Xander spotted a storm drain not too far away. Running towards it, seeing Willow get to her feet out of the corner of his eye, Xander quickly bent water out of the drain and into the air. In much the same way he had practiced with Buffy, he began using dual water whips to try and keep dark Willow back. Unlike before, however, he was much more focused and wasn't holding back. Several times, he cut her as the whips hit her face and arms.

Drawing more water to him, Xander started sending jets of water, pushing Willow back every time it struck her. Breathing in, he took one last bit of water and sent it in a wave toward her feet. Exhaling while pushing his arms out, Xander froze the water and Willow's legs with it. It stopped the vampire from going anywhere, but it didn't make her give up. Almost instantly, she was shifting her legs and hitting the ice trying to free herself.

"Stop it," Xander demanded. "Or the next one goes through your heart."

Looking in front of her, Willow saw a single ice spike floating in the air pointed at her chest. "Won't kill me," she teased.

"No, but it'll hurt like hell," Xander countered.

Smirking, Willow shook her head. "You don't want to hurt me. You could, but you don't want to. You have so much power, but you're still weak. I can make you _strong_."

"Stop it," Xander said quietly.

"Think about it, Xander," Willow said. "You and me, no more rules, just play. I've seen the other Willow, she looks sad. We can change that. She won't have to be sad ever again. We could have fun, the three of us. I bet you could think of all _sorts_ of things."

"Stop it," he repeated louder. "Just...just stop it!" Flicking his wrist, the icicle flew toward the trapped doppelganger but missed her completely, embedding itself in a tree trunk a few inches behind her and to the right.

He couldn't do it. He knew that it was evil, that it was a creature that wanted nothing more than to create pain and destruction everywhere it went, but still, Xander couldn't bring himself to destroy it.

It wasn't just that it looked like Willow, that it _was_ Willow, it was because of who he was now. Being the Avatar had changed him in ways that were so profound that even he didn't fully understand them all. This, his first test as what kind of Avatar he would be had been answered. He wouldn't take a life, not if there was another way.

Xander walked until he was in front of Willow. He searched her eyes for something, anything that he could use to justify to his friends why he couldn't kill her. All he found was blood lust and manic glee. Willow would understand; after all, she didn't want her dusted anymore than he did. The rest of them...they wouldn't get it. Buffy would react particularly bad. She put off killing Angel for months and saw the amount of damage he had done. She would use that as a reason to stake the vampire version of Willow and, honestly, she would have a good point. But that didn't mean that it was the only point out there.

"What's the matter, baby?" Willow asked sweetly. "Don't want to play anymore?"

"I'm not going to stake you," Xander told her. "I'm going to find my friends, and I'm going to figure out what to do with you."

"You're not like him at all, are you?" Willow said breathing heavily. "You _are_ different."

"Yeah, and you're giving me the wiggins. Just…shut up, alright?"

"This is gonna be fun." Willow winked at Xander before looking past him, snarling. "_You_!"

Looking behind him, Xander saw Buffy, along with Angel and Willow, running towards them. He didn't know if he should be relived or nervous at the sight of them. It would certainly be an interesting conversation when he had to explain why he hadn't dealt with vampire Willow, but he steeled himself for it.

"Xander!" Buffy called out to him as she started to run faster.

"Buffy, it's OK. She isn't going anywhere," Xander called back.

Of course, he should have known not to tempt fate like that.

The sound of ice breaking was his first sign that something was wrong. The second was the white hot pain in the back of his head and the fact that his vision was swimming. He didn't remember hitting the ground, but the cold, wet grass on his face told him that's exactly where he was. He felt someone helping him into a sitting position and the world spun for a few minutes making him nauseous.

"Breath. Just breath, Xander." A male voice – Angel, then. Great, just what he needed. Though damn it if breathing didn't help clear his head and make him not want to throw up nearly as much.

"What was that?" Angel asked hearing Xander mumble something.

Groaning, Xander clutched his head in pain. "Said, it's funny hearing you of all people telling me to breath."

That actually got a chuckle out of the ensouled vampire.

"OHMYGODXANDER!" Willow, the non-vampire one, cried out next to him.

Despite the pain her outburst caused him, Xander smiled. "I'm alright. Just...well, my head is still attached, right?"

"She's gone," Buffy said, walking back to the group. "She ran into the sewers. Damn it!"

"We'll get her," Xander told her, slurring his words a bit, but needing to talk. "We just have to figure out what to do with her once we do."

"What we do? Xander, you _had_ her. All you had to do was stake her," Buffy told him.

He tried to glare at her from the ground but found it hurt his head too much and stopped. Xander got to his feet with Angel and Willow's help. "No, I couldn't have."

"Fine, then you could have held her till one of us got here with a stake. But you let her get away."

"I didn't _let_ her do anything," Xander countered. "I wasn't expecting her to break through the ice like that. Vampires are a bit stronger than your average person, Buff. Besides, I...I don't think that getting rid of her should be our only option."

Blinking in disbelief, Buffy said, "Xander, she's dangerous. Just...just look at yourself! I don't like it anymore than you do, but just because she looks like Willow doesn't mean she is Willow."

Xander wanted to respond, to argue and fight with her but after the fight and being hit in the back of the head, he just didn't have it in him. He simply didn't have the strength. But, he could at least correct her.

"That vampire didn't just _look_ like Willow. That _was_ Willow." He spoke to everyone but the words were directed at Buffy. "I don't know how, but that's Willow. Not some demon shape shifter, but the real deal."

"What? How...how do, I mean, how is it...?" Willow asked.

"I just...know. The things she was saying, it just sort of...clicked."

Buffy shook her head. "All the more reason to take her out. I know you don't want to, guys, but it's too dangerous not to." Buffy glanced at Angel, the statement clear. It was dangerous enough when a powerful vampire had it out for them, but it was a whole different ball game when it was a powerful vampire that knew them personally.

Trying to stand on his own didn't work out so well and he nearly fell over again. He would have too, if Angel hadn't caught him again.

"I think we need to get you home," Angel told him. "We can't do anything about, um, the other Willow right now."

"The girl!" Xander exclaimed, wincing at his own raised voice. "There was a young girl before, she ran down the street."

"I'll find her, make sure she get's home," Angel said having Buffy switch places with him before quickly making his way down the street.

Slowly, the group, minus Angel, made its way out of the park and towards Giles house.

The whole time, Xander couldn't help but question if he had done the right thing.

* * *

Watching the group walk away from the storm grate, vampire Willow smiled.

This world's Xander was far more interesting than her own. Not that she didn't love him in her own way, but he wasn't here right now and _this _onewas. She had no idea where he had learned such magic, though. Probably from the White Hats and the Watcher, she grumbled. The Slayer was here, which made things more difficult. Even the Master had feared the Slayer showing up, which is why she had ran. She'd take the blonde bitch down, but not yet. First, she had to get her lover back. Then, well, then the world would be like it was before.

Licking her lips in anticipation, vampire Willow started down the sewer tunnel. She'd have to check on a few things, see if the Master was still around and if so, why he hadn't dealt with the Slayer yet.

If he wasn't, then she'd just have to see what the local talent was like. She could always use a replacement puppy, at least until she broke this world's puppy.

Now, _that_ would be fun.


	10. Chapter 10

**_A/N:_** Thanks to Greywizard for his help, once again. And, also, thanks to everyone who has read and especially to those who have reviewed. We all know those reviews make us write faster and better. Plus, hey, feedback is always great. I know a lot of you are questioning Xander's "No Kill" rule, but realize that this is the first time we really see him make this decision. He's just started out on the spiritual side of his journey and while it's a bit out of character of old Xander, this Xander has been affected by Aangs spirit and ideas. So, that being said, you'll just have to see what happens and what he does. Hope you guys enjoy!

**Chapter 10**

Slamming the door of Principal Snyder's office, Giles clenched the doorknob and breathed heavily, forcing himself to calm down. The meeting with Snyder had taken an hour -which was one hour longer than Giles cared to spend with the man. The little troll had spent the entire time belittling Buffy, Xander, a few digs at Willow and, finally, Giles himself. All of it had been thinly veiled as a meeting to discuss Xander's progress, or rather the lack there-of. It had taken a great deal of control on his part not to punch the man's face in when he started gloating about being right. Of course, that self-control didn't mean that Giles couldn't let a few not so subtle threats slip. It had taken some of the wind out of his sails, but Snyder had still laid down some threats of his own. If Xander didn't start improving, he wasn't going to graduate and would, instead, be kicked out of the school.

Giles had already spoken with Xander on the subject the moment he realized that he had almost stopped going to class entirely, spending his time training, instead. He knew that he couldn't force Xander to go, but he had hoped that he could at least try to sway him some. Unfortunately, that hadn't worked out nearly as well as he had planned. Xander had, instead, made several points that Giles couldn't argue with, unless he completely disregarded what Xander was saying when it came to him being the Avatar, something he was trying very hard not to do. Giles completely trusted and believed him when it came to anything having to do with the Avatar, as well as how important mastering the elements was to him. The point that Giles had some problems with, however, was just how important the Avatar was in this world.

There was no denying that the Avatar was a powerful being. Lord, when he had seen Xander practice with only air and water bending, he had been amazed, and still somewhat frightened. To think, he hadn't even begun training with earth or fire yet. So, yes, he was destined to be powerful. But how much more of a destiny was there for him? The Avatar, as Xander spoke of him, was someone who was linked to destiny, a being of balance and peace. A bridge between some sort of Spirit World and the physical one.

That was the Avatar in his home world, though.

There was no telling who or what an Avatar in this dimension may be.

Was Xander still linked to the same line of Avatars who had come before him, or was Aang simply able to communicate because of their mystical connection on Halloween? If so, would that mean that there would be an Avatar born after he died? These were only two of the questions that Giles often thought of in regards to Xander's newfound power.

But, if Xander wasn't connected to the destiny of the Avatar, a destiny that Xander said was different for each incarnation, then what would that mean for him? Would all of his training and skill simply go to waste because he could never fully actualize as such? Yes, he would be strong enough to take on vampires and demons without the help of Buffy or Faith or - well, anyone really. But would he have thrown all of his life away chasing after a destiny that was never meant to be?

Regaining most of his composure, Giles took his hand off the door and made his way to the library. None of this helped to change Xander's mind, though. To Xander, school simply didn't matter because he was meant for something else, something more than himself. One of the things that he had said was that being the Avatar meant putting his own wants and desires aside, should he need to. Unless he changed his mind about that, there was no way of getting through to him. At least he had gotten Xander to agree to go for a GED, if nothing else. It may not be the most traditional of paths, but Xander, and really all of his charges, were anything but traditional.

Stopping short when he entered the library, Giles stared at the scene in front of him.

Xander was sitting on the floor in a meditative position and even with his eyes closed, a faint blue-white light was still showing through. That was to be expected at this time during the week. It was one of the two days that Xander and Aang had set aside to train. Since this was basically an out of body experience, it was agreed that not only would they say that the library was closed for one reason or another, but also that someone would be there at all times to watch over him. When Giles had left earlier, Willow had been sitting at the table doing her homework and making sure that no one found Xander in this state. It was something of a surprise when he returned and found Wesley there instead, staring at the younger man.

"Where's Willow?" Giles asked. Perhaps he was more upset from the meeting with Snyder than he thought, since his voice was a bit more gruff and harsh than he intended.

Jumping slightly, Wesley turned around, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw Giles. Seeing the wooden cross hanging around Wesley's neck and the stake in one hand ready to strike, Giles could only roll his eyes. On anyone else, it might have been comical, but Wesley was a trained member of the Watcher's Council. He could at least try to be a bit more professional - or perhaps simply not as idiotic.

"Oh, Mister Giles. How was your meeting?" Wesley asked.

"Annoying and pointless," Giles muttered. "Where's Willow? She was supposed to be watching over Xander."

"Yes, Miss Rosenberg was here when I came in. She had to run a quick errand and I offered to take over the watch for her." Nodding to the table in front of him, Wesley added. "I believe that something caught her eye."

Picking up the book, Giles frowned as he read the title. "_Thulman's Guide to the Outer Realms._ I don't recall keeping this book here."

"That's because you didn't," Wesley said, his attention back on Xander.

"There's a good reason I don't keep this out in the open. I understand that _you_ may not care about the well-being of these children but I will not tolerate this...this blatant disregard for their safety!"

"It's the abridged version, Mister Giles," Wesley told him distractedly. "There isn't anything in there that is even remotely harmful. Just a few...ideas that might have a budding witch or wizard looking down a few paths they would have otherwise ignored until it was too late. Something that is undoubtedly better without the influence of Thulman's personal beliefs, I might add."

Raising an eyebrow, Giles said, "You gave this to Willow on purpose? To...what? Get her to leave?"

Nodding his head, Wesley placed the stake on the table, continuing to stare at Xander as he meditated. "I thought it would be useful. I remember what it was like, when I was her age."

"I would be concerned if you didn't remember three years ago," Giles said sarcastically.

With an annoyed glance in his direction, Wesley continued. "As someone who's only just begun their way to studying magic, help and positive direction is extremely important. I felt that since I'm regarded rather...poorly here, simply offering my assistance wouldn't work."

"So you let her find the answers on her own, supplying her only with the questions," Giles said with understanding. Willow had been becoming more and more adept at witchcraft and, unfortunately, her training had fallen to the wayside. She was more than capable of teaching herself, but she couldn't teach herself limits.

Shaking his head, Giles pushed the thought away, asking, "But that doesn't explain why you wanted her away from here, away from Xander."

"Relax," Wesley told him. "I only wanted to observe him for a time. It's...all rather amazing."

Giles regarded Wesley strangely. The man was acting rather odd, not quite as pompous or full of himself as usual. There was still the air of ineptitude about him, such as when he jumped when Giles came in. But there was definitely something off about him.

"You've seen Xander meditating before. It's not as if anything changes," Giles said.

Nodding, Wesley only stared harder. "No, I'm not expecting anything like that. But, still, it's all rather amazing when you think about it."

Noticing the tired expression on the young Watcher's face, Giles leaned against the table. "Is everything alright?"

"Hmm?" Wesley looked up. "Oh, yes, I'm fine. I just..."

"Just what?" Giles asked when Wesley stopped.

Sighing, Wesley removed his glasses, rubbing his eyes. "I'm just tired, I suppose. As you know, what time isn't spent training either Buffy or Faith I've been using to help you and Xander research the Councils knowledge of the, uh, other plane. It's turned up some rather upsetting things."

Folding his arms, Giles asked, "What is it?"

Hesitantly, Wesley reached down and picked up his brief case. Taking out a manila folder, he slid it across the table.

"After some thinking, I thought it best not to go to any of the senior members of the Council. Instead, I asked an acquaintance of mine from back in the Watchers Academy to help me find something. She's been working in the Records Department since we graduated –she's really quite brilliant, but never wanted to be in the field. She was always a bit more rebellious than myself. Something that was...well, it doesn't really seem to matter. In hindsight, it's rather fortuitous, even. She didn't even ask me that many questions, only that she hoped that it would help."

Opening the file, Giles was surprised for the second time in the short time. The first few pages were photo copies of several journal entries. It was hard to read due to age and the quality of the photo copier but as he glanced at it, Giles understood what the basic details were. A Watcher had come into contact with what he called 'A great demonic bird'. The demon apparently had an enormous library hidden in the underground of London. How anyone had missed that was beyond him. Either way, the Watcher made several more trips to the bird demon's library until one day, it simply vanished.

The next few sheets, another journal from another Watcher, talked about a man that a Slayer met in Italy in the early nineteenth century. A dark skinned warlock who worked entirely with water based magic. The battle was well documented by the Slayer's Watcher, talking about how concerned he was for his charge. It wasn't simply one fight, either. It had spanned over three days, the warlock would usually run off after besting the Slayer. It was only on the third encounter did the Slayer finally beat the mage, but not before being mortally wounded. The Watcher's entries ended after that, unsurprisingly, and there was nothing else on the man she fought.

There were several other entries that mirrored these two. Men and women with unique mystical abilities, demons that seemed to be either demonic or particularly caring about this world, and a slew of creatures that were more than strange to this world, some of them described just as Xander had. All of it seemed strange, but not out of the ordinary when it came to what a Slayer or Watcher may deal with - but, taken together, they were as close to a confirmation that the Council knew about the Avatar's world as they were likely to get.

It explained some things but not others. If the Council knew about the world of the Avatar, why hadn't they marked this file? Anything even remotely dangerous was loaded with tags to let anyone know not to toy with it. Obviously, someone had discovered the factor that linked all of these events together, but there was no clue as to what it was or who had done it.

As if reading his mind, Wesley pulled a small letter from his brief case.

"This accompanied the file this morning. Lisa sent it to me. It's...rather private, I hope you understand. But what she was able to uncover, after a bit of digging, was that the Council isn't entirely aware of these incidents being linked. Certain people within the Council know, but not many. In fact, there may only be a handful or so - maybe more who suspect the truth, but don't know what it means. My father's name appears on the form consolidating the file." Wesley looked at Xander as if trying to piece something together simply by looking at him. "His wasn't the only name to come up, however."

"Who was the other?" Giles asked stunned.

"Edna Giles," Wesley replied listlessly. "It seems as if before she passed, your grandmother was involved in this...whatever _this_ is. Hers was the second signature on this file, keeping it hidden from prying eyes."

Slumping into a chair, Giles stared at the papers in front of him. What was it about the Avatar's world that had joined a small faction of the Council together to keep it secret? The Giles family and the Pryce family had never been the closest of friends. In fact, they both regarded each other as something akin to political rivals in the Council. What could have been so special or terrifying about this world that both of them would have agreed to have the records sealed? None of it made any sense. Was it simply the world itself that they feared or was it something more? Could they possibly know about the Avatar? Not only that, but if the records were sealed, why would Wesley's father send him the book?

There were too many questions. Every time one was answered, more would pop up to take its place.

"I heard that Xander is refusing to use his abilities to kill anything, even vampires," Wesley stated, changing the topic.

"What? Oh, uh, yes. He was rather firm on the subject."

"That can't be going over well with Buffy or Faith. A fighter that won't act." The last part was said so quietly that Giles actually thought he hadn't heard right.

"He doesn't want to taint what he's become, it seems." Giles was initially going to leave it at that. Thinking better of it, he added, "Though, if you were to ask me, I think he's conflicted on the subject. He wants to live up to this...ideal that the previous Avatar was. I'm uncertain if all Avatars try to be the same way, but I'm unsure if Xander is as comfortable with his decision as he says."

"He wants to do more, but is unsure of how," Wesley mused. "It's enough to drive anyone mad, let alone someone with as much power as he does and will have."

"I admit, the amount of power worried me as well. But Xander seems comfortable with what he can do. He doesn't say it but I can see that the others', and I fear myself included, lack of understanding and fear at what he can do bothers him."

Wesley sat back, seemingly suddenly tired. "Is it always this confusing?"

"The Hellmouth? No, sometimes it's downright insane," Giles joked darkly.

Smirking, Wesley replied, "That's good to know, but I was referring to life."

Regarding the young man next to him, Giles couldn't help but feel for the man who annoyed him for the past few weeks. The news about his father being involved with all of this was affecting him more deeply than Wesley was saying. It must have been difficult for Wesley to come to the Hellmouth and take over while he, himself, was still present and active in Buffy's and Faith's lives. More so, he wasn't being treated very warmly from any of their little group, with the exception of Cordelia. To be so young and given so much responsibility, to have so many eyes on him as he tried to work in this nearly impossible situation. No, Giles wouldn't take that for anything in the world.

Patting him on the shoulder, Giles got up and started for his office. "Come with me."

"Is everything alright?" Wesley asked.

"If this is like every other session, I believe that Xander has about another hour or so before he'll be finished," Giles said to him. "And if we're going to have this type of conversation, I think that there should at least be some alcohol involved."

**__**

"I just...it just makes me so mad! Does he even realize what he's doing? I'm not saying he should go around _looking_ for things to kill, but who lets vampires live anyway?" Stopping, Buffy glanced at Angel. "Uh, you know what I mean."

Meeting her eyes, Angel nodded before going back to searching the sewer they were walking through. "I get what you're saying. But, maybe he has a point."

"What? You think we should, what, let demons off with a stern talking to?"

Angel peered down one of the turns before deciding it was clear. "No, of course not. Look, can we maybe talk about this later?"

"What? What's wrong with now?" Buffy asked heatedly.

Shaking his head, Angel gives in. "Buffy, not everybody has the same thoughts on killing demons, even vampires, as we do. In my time, I've met several people who thought that everyone, including vampires, should have the right to live."

"Really? How long did they last?"

"Um, not long, typically," Angel admitted.

"Exactly!"

Angel shook his head. "Xander has more than enough power to take care of himself."

"You mean like he did with that tramped out vampire version of Willow?" Buffy asked. "He could have ended it and then we wouldn't be searching through the sewers for her in the first place."

"You're worried that he might get hurt?" Angel asked.

"Duh! What do you think I've been saying?" Buffy lowered her voice, saying, "I don't want anyone to get hurt. And this whole...thing with Xander, it's going to get him killed."

Angel couldn't help but smirk. "Buffy, I may not be Xander's biggest fan, but one thing I can't say about him anymore is that he's weak. He hasn't missed any of the patrols or stopped fighting. He just...he doesn't want to kill."

"Exactly! He keeps putting himself in danger and I can't always be there to be the one to do the stabbing." Shaking her head, Buffy groaned in frustration. "I just want him to be safe and if he doesn't finish off certain things, then how safe is he going to be? Or what if he lets some vampire go and it goes off and kills someone, what then?"

Frowning, Angel couldn't help but agree with her. He loved Buffy, he truly did. But he couldn't help but feel slightly let down by her not staking him when he lost his soul. If she had, all of those people that Angelus had killed would still be alive. It was something that neither of them talked about much, though was always there with them. In fact, it was only after Angelus had come after her friends did Buffy finally steel herself to destroy him. He hoped that Xander wouldn't have to experience the same thing and have him break his vow to, as the young man had put it, 'protect life, not destroy it'.

"Do you think I'm wrong?" Buffy demanded.

"There really is no way to answer that question, is there?" Angel asked. Sighing, he stopped and looked at her. "I think that Xander has the right to choose for himself."

"So do I! I just want him to choose the right answer."

"In a way, I envy him," Angel told her. "What we do, killing demons, staking vampires, it's good, don't get me wrong, but it's also hard. I've seen the other side of it too, the one where you get so good at killing demons because they're trying to hurt people that killing humans because they do the same doesn't seem like a bad idea."

"Yeah, well no one's saying that we should go around killing anything that might be even remotely evil. Just...just the things that really are evil."

"Life isn't that simple sometimes, Buffy."

The petite blonde stared at him for a moment, looking ready to continue the fight. Angel really didn't want to have it out with her down here, and not just because it was an argument that would keep going around in circles. They were supposed to be looking for any signs of the vampire Willow and with all of the noise they were making, he doubted that they would find anything, let alone her. Near as Angel had been able to figure, the vampire version of Willow was a Master Vampire, something that was scary all on its own. Add the fact that she seemed to be a bit crazy, and it added up to something even worse. Angel suppressed a shudder as memories of Drusilla passed through his mind.

"It's going to be getting dark soon," Angel said. "We aren't going to find her down here and if she is in the tunnels, she'll head topside soon."

Nodding, though still angry, Buffy said, "I'll head back and talk to Giles, and I guess Wesley, too. Try and figure out what our next move is."

As she turned to head back the way they had come, Angel called out to her. "Buffy, I know you're frightened of it, of what Xander can do, but don't be. He's no more a threat than Willow would be."

"I'm not afraid of what he might do to me," Buffy said. "I'm afraid of what it might do to him."

_****_

Bent over and resting on his hands on his knees, Xander tried to catch his breath. Aang was proving to be a harder trainer than he had thought possible - either that or he was still way out of shape in terms of a bender. The area around them was still as deathly quiet as it had been every other time Xander and Aang met in this part of the Spirit World and, as always, they were never bothered by any Spirit, although both of them could still sense something right at the edge of the clearing. Still, without any actually bending, their training sessions were a lot more physical, a mixture of different Waterbending forms and sparring, minus the bending. It was the latter that had Xander needing a break.

"You OK, Xander?" Aang asked.

"What?" Xander asked breathing heavily. "Never better. I always fight like this. Keeps the enemy on their toes, lures them into a false sense of security then, when I fall over on them, they're all mine."

Laughing, Aang shook his head. "We should call it a day, anyway. Katara's going to be pretty mad with me anyway for taking this long."

"Ah, yes. The anger of a woman is always to be avoided," Xander said in a mock sage like voice, earning him another laugh. "How is everyone doing, anyway?"

Shrugging, Aang said, "They're OK. We've been trying to put down a few rebellions, a few mini-battles and stuff. _A lot_ of peace talks."

"Well, if that's all," Xander said with a roll of his eyes. "Only the fate of the entire world, no biggie."

"Hey, weren't you the one talking about stopping an Apocalypse?" Aang teased back.

"I'd rather face a hundred vampires than a single minded Azula...or a pissed off Katara, for that matter," Xander mused before adding, "Or a bored Toph."

Shaking his head, Aang couldn't help but chuckle. "You have a crazy life, you know that?"

"Well, it used to be normal. Just exams, vampires and the occasional end of the world, and then _this_ whole thing happened," Xander said pointing between the two of them. "Now my whole world has been turned on its head."

Looking at him sympathetically, Aang quickly became serious. "Did something happen? You've been distracted almost the whole time we've been training."

Sighing, Xander stood up straight, running a hand through his hair. "Just...kind of confused, is all. Things have gotten a bit tense between me and, well, everybody."

Nodding, Aang sat down on the ground, motioning for Xander to join him. It would have been amusing since Aang was still younger than him by about four years, but he still had more experience than himself in this type of situation.

"Well, what seems to be the problem?" Aang asked.

Searching for the right words, Xander gestured vaguely. "They look at me different. Now, I mean. When they see me bending, or when I talk about some of the things from your world, they look at me like I'm a freak or something. They don't mean it, and I don't even think they know they're doing it. I thought they'd get used to it, ya know? But instead it's just gotten worse it seems."

Frowning, Aang looked down. "When the monks first told me that I was the Avatar and the other kids at the temple found out, they pushed me away. Being the Avatar made them look at me differently, like I wasn't the same person anymore. I couldn't even get them to play any games with me, anymore. I don't know what it's like to be the only bender in the world, but I know what it's like to be looked at like that."

"So, how'd that work out for you?" Xander asked.

"Ran away and got trapped in an iceberg for a hundred years," Aang said with a shrug.

Grinning, Xander replied, "I think I might want to avoid something like that."

"I wish I had something more to offer you," Aang told him. "One thing that I've learned is that it's never easy, no matter who you are. There are always people who will treat you different, just because you can do things they can't. I've come across people who have praised the me for being the Avatar and others who have condemned me. The monks taught me to treat everyone with the same respect, no matter who they were, but outside of the Temple, no one does that. Never mind the fact that the universe tends to pull us in certain directions despite what we may want."

"Well, that's good to know," Xander said sarcastically. "Anything else the universe wants to throw on top of me?"

Chuckling, Aang said, "The universe seems to know what it's doing most of the time."

"Yeah, well someone needs to tell the universe to take a break for a minute." Xander frowned slightly, asking, "So, what am I supposed to do? It's not exactly as if I can lead the world into an era of peace, here. My world isn't prepared to handle something like me, at least I don't think they are."

Again, Aang shrugged. "I don't know, Xander. I was lucky in a way. I knew that I was meant to end the Fire Nation's plans to take over the world. But just because I knew that, it didn't mean that it was just going happen." Seeing the depressed look on Xander's face, Aang stood up, offering his hand. "But for now, let's concentrate on you learning the elements."

Taking the help up, Xander dusted himself off. He considered telling Aang about the book documenting the fall of the Air Nomads but decided against it. He couldn't bring the book to the Spirit World and the only thing Aang could do with the knowledge would torture himself even more than he already did. No, it was best not to let him know anything unless they uncovered something important. But, there was something that else that Aang might be able to help him with.

"Hey, you got time for one more thing?" Xander asked hesitantly. "It's just...how did you do it? When you fought Ozai, how did you keep from killing him?"

"How did I _not_ kill Ozai?" Aang asked confused.

Shaking his head, Xander clarified. "No, I mean...how did you know not to kill him? You made the decision to do everything in your power to stop him without killing him when, let's be honest, it probably would have been a lot easier to just drop a boulder on his head or something like that."

Nodding with understanding, Aang grew serious once more. "I won't lie, Xander. It would have been easy to end Ozai once and for all, but...it didn't feel right. The monks raised me to believe that every life is sacred, and it's true. I made a promise to myself a long time ago not to take any life. I've broke that promise a handful of times during fights, mostly by accident, but it's happened. I never meant for any of those people or animals to die, but I can't change it. I can only try to do better."

"I know. It's the Avatar's duty to protect the sanctity of life." He said the words as if he was repeating a mantra.

"No, it's more than that, Xander. It's the Avatar's duty to promote peace and balance to the world. To do everything in our power to make sure that balance is kept. But," Aang added, "that doesn't mean that we have the same way of going about it."

"So...we're this peace keeping being in a powerful and violent wrapping?" Xander asked.

"Well, the Avatar has to be. Each person, whether a bender or not, has the power to change the world for both the worse and the better. But if things get to the point that one person or a group of people threaten the world in a way that can't be stopped by anyone else, then the Avatar is supposed to help keep the balance from tipping."

"How can there be a different way to being all...peaceful?"

Chuckling, Aang said, "Not every Avatar is peaceful. Some didn't even like people and stayed hidden away from the world, only emerging if they were needed. Avatar Yangchen once told me that I would have to sacrifice my own spiritual needs since I was the Avatar. I was lucky to find a way around it, that time, but that won't mean that it'll always be the case."

"So, what will you do when that happens?" Xander asked quietly.

Aang smiled. "I'll deal with it."

Apparently, the conversation was over. In a blinding blue-white light, Aang vanished from the clearing, leaving Xander standing alone with his thoughts. Aang hadn't exactly done a lot to put him at ease, though it wasn't really his job to do so. He was already doing more than any other preceding Avatar. He doubted any of them had actually trained their predecessor in the art of bending. If it wasn't for Aang, he wouldn't be anywhere as good as he was, let alone as well versed in the other aspects of being the Avatar. But right now, what he needed was direction and all Aang had been able to tell him is that he would find direction when he found direction.

It was more confusing than helpful.

Closing his eyes, Xander concentrated on leaving the Spirit World. When he opened them again, he was sitting in the standard meditative position in the middle of the library. No one was around as far as he could see and from the shadows around the room, he guessed that it was well past sundown. It seemed that he had spent more time in the Spirit World than he had intended. There was a light on in Giles' office, so at least someone was around.

Slowly, Xander stood up and stretched his muscles. Sitting in that position for that long really made his body stiff and he could only imagine the pain he would have been in if he wasn't in the shape he was in now. Just a few months ago and he'd probably be crawling across the floor with his legs dragging uselessly behind him. Still, he made sure not to over-extend his legs as he walked to Giles' office, shaking them out along the way.

"Okay, why is it that every time I come into this office after meditating, there's something weird going on?" Xander asked.

Giles and Wesley were looking at him, or at least trying to look at him. Wesley had a particular hard time of it since he hadn't been facing the door and was trying to bend over backwards in his chair to see him. Giles was only moderately better since his office chair allowed him to swivel in his general direction. The movement seemed to be particularly funny to the two men for some reason as both of them burst into a fit of breathless laughter. This only caused Wesley to fall over backwards, landing on the floor in another fit of hysterics.

Eyeing the bottle of scotch and the two mugs on the desk, Xander raised his eyebrows till he was almost positive that they would become part of his hairline. Neither of the two men looked as if they were in any condition to talk, let alone explain what had caused the mini party.

With a shake of his head, Xander walked out of the office. He was far too confused with his own thoughts to even begin trying to make out what was going on.

**__**

Slamming the door to the truck shut, Lindsey stalked through the parking lot of the gas station as best he could while using his cane. Ethan was close behind him but following at much more leisurely pace, or maybe he was just more cautious than he was. Lindsey didn't exactly feel like being cautious though, not now. He actually wanted whoever was leading them around to jump out and attack them. 'Cause if there was one thing Lindsey was ready for, right now, it was a fight. The weight of the .45 tucked behind his back was comforting and the bourbon he had drunk before driving over here might have had something to do with his bravado.

The gas station was a couple of miles outside of Sunnydale and it looked empty, as if whoever had been there had left in a hurry. It was a small place, two pumps that probably had more rust than gas in them. The store took up most of the lot and looked to be in far better shape than the pumps. The walls were made of cinder blocks, with spaces made up for a single door and two windows. Both windows had thick black bars on the outside with glass that looked to be about three inches thick, probably bullet proof, if Lindsey had to guess. The front door, which was open, looked heavy and probably made of some kind of fire resistant material.

Stepping around, Lindsey got a look at the front of it and saw a large cross etched in it. The doorknob had one on it as well, raised in the brass. In whole, the place didn't look pretty, but it did seem as if it could withstand any of the typical nighttime predators that could be found in and around Sunnydale. Whoever owned the place must know what went on around here and had taken precautions.

Which only begged the question of where they had run off to in the middle of the night?

Taking a look at Ethan, Lindsey saw that he was as lost as himself, offering only a shrug . Ethan gave the appearance of being completely at home with the situation but Lindsey saw his eyes dart back and forth, taking everything in. He was just as nervous as Lindsey was and he knew for a fact that the chaos mage had some quick and dirty spell ready to go if things got to dicey for them.

Lindsey resisted the urge to shout out to somebody. It was tempting, but would get them nowhere. Whoever had told them to come here obviously knew they had arrived. He doubted that the gas station owner just happened to run out back to take a leak when they showed up.

No, this was all planned. He knew that it wasn't a death trap, but that wasn't all that comforting. There wasn't any need to drag them out here and kill them when all their mystery host had to do was wait till both he and Ethan were in their cars to blow them up.

Motioning for Ethan to cover him, Lindsey pointed to the store and made his way over, still looking for any sign of someone lying in wait. It seemed like a long walk but finally, Lindsey peeked inside the doorway. By this time, he could make out the low noise of a radio playing somewhere by the register, a country station if he wasn't mistaken. The inside was unremarkable, like every other gas station store he'd ever seen. Too bright fluorescent lights were shining brightly, forcing his eyes to adjust. There was glass surrounding the checkout counter, protecting the clerk from anything that a normal thug would carry and the crosses attached to the inside probably helped deter any vampire that made it through the front door.

After waiting a few minutes, Lindsey determined that there wasn't anything inside that was worth looking at further. The last thing he wanted to do was go inside a room with only one exit, just on the offhand chance that this was some crazed elaborate scheme to get him and Ethan alone and kill them. It would be an awful lot of work if that was the case, but he wasn't taking any chances.

"Nothing in here," Lindsey said turning back to Ethan.

"Want to explain why you two assholes called me out here? I'd ask your friend but I'd rather he didn't say anything, ya know?"

Lindsey froze for a moment. Standing behind Ethan, putting him in what looked like a painful choke-hold, was the dark haired Slayer. Faith, that was her name, he reminded himself. She looked half crazed and not willing to listen to anything he had to say at the moment. Luckily, Lindsey didn't feel like talking much.

With practiced speed, Lindsey drew his gun and pointed it at Faith. "I didn't call you out here, Princess. We were told to meet some guy out here, nothing to do with you."

"Bullshit," she spat. "Drop the gun or we find out how good the Brit's impression of an owl is."

Shrugging slightly, Lindsey said, "Go ahead. You kill him and I got a clean shot. Not to mention some peace and quiet."

Squeezing harder, Faith smiled. "You want to go? Always wanted to see if I was faster than a bullet."

"Oh, I'd be happy to help you test that one out, darlin'," Lindsey snarled, matching her grin. "I've been itching to get some pay back on you people."

"Don't blame me 'cause someone messed you up. I'm sure all the guys dig the limp," Faith said with a wink.

Lindsey was ready to fire back with another insult, this one a bit more personal now having read Faith's file, but Ethan beat him to the punch. Well, more like he interrupted them with nonsensical sounds, the words muffled and strangled due to the pressure on his throat. But his wide, pain filled eyes kept darting to where they had pulled in off the road. Chancing a look, Lindsey saw a black SUV parked in the drive way of the gas station.

"What? All this for little ol' me? I'm touched," Faith said with false emotion.

"I told you," Lindsey said turning to point his gun at the SUV. "I didn't bring you out here."

The front back door opened and one of the most unassuming men Lindsey had ever seen stepped out. He was maybe five foot eight, brown hair, and a face that had nothing distinguishing about it. His suit was plain black with a black tie over a white shirt. It was the kind of faceless drone that Lindsey was used to passing in the halls of Wolfram and Hart, the kind that you could never remember but pretty much made the firm run properly.

The man didn't bother shutting the door. He merely grabbed a briefcase from the seat and started walking towards them. Lindsey didn't take his gun off the man and Faith didn't release Ethan. The amount of hostility didn't seem to bother him at all, but he did stop a respectful distance from the trio. The most his emotionless face gave away was a tiny rise of one eyebrow as he surveyed the scene in front of him.

"Miss Lehane," the plain man said in his bland voice. "If you would please release Mister Rayne, I would greatly appreciate it. I'd hate to have to explain to my employer that one of you three died before I could explain what's going on."

"Your employer? Well, where the hell are they, G-man?" Faith asked still holding on to Ethan.

"I assure you, I'm no more with the FBI than any of you are." Looking at Faith expectantly, he added, "Well?"

After considering it for a second, Faith released Ethan, who started coughing as he began to breathe normally. Lindsey only spared him a quick glance before refocusing on Mister Bland.

"Mister McDonald, if I was going to harm or kill you, would I have dragged you all the way out here to do it? Lower your weapon, please."

"Thanks, but think I'm fine the way I am," Lindsey replied with a smirk.

"Fine," the man said with a sigh. "If you insist."

"Who the hell are you?" Faith asked. "What the fuck's up with the phone number and the cryptic ass message?"

"You got that, too?" Ethan said through a rough voice, rubbing his throat. "Here I thought we were special."

"Oh, but you are special, Mister Rayne. All three of you of you are." The bland man went to open his briefcase, than thought better of it. Looking at all three of them, he glanced at the case and raised his eyebrow again. Once the three of them gave a sign of it being OK, he placed it down and opened it, taking out three files. "All of you were called, received only this address, date, and time, and showed up. That alone makes you better than most. It's that…sense of willingness to throw yourself into any situation, regardless of the dangers, that my employer finds extremely appealing.

"You can call me Jason. Each of these folders has the same information, mind you. My employer just assumed that it would be easier to give you all your own copy."

Ethan, nominated by the fact neither Lindsey nor Faith moved, retrieved the files and handed one to Faith, with only some trepidation. The other two he held onto and opened one, so that way Lindsey could look at it without lowering the gun.

"What the fuck is this shit?" Faith asked flipping through the pages.

"It's a contract," Lindsey said as he glanced at the front page.

"It's an offer," Jason corrected. "A very generous one at that."

Finally, Lindsey dropped his aim on Jason and grabbed the contract. Scanning over every heading, Lindsey was used to the legal wording but still forced himself to check all of the fine print as he kept one ear on the conversation.

"What's the offer?" Ethan asked as curiosity got the better of him.

"My employer needs something acquired, something of great importance. They're willing to pay very well for it, but that's just the first thing they are offering," Jason told him. "Of course, there will be other perks as well. An added bonus for each of you, you could say."

"What's the catch?" Faith said quickly. Lindsey had spent many years dealing with people in make or break deals, and Faith had all the signs of already having signed on in her own head and was only making a show of thinking about it.

Jason turned to her, still expressionless. "As Mister McDonald can tell you, there aren't any catches. It's worded very carefully, explaining everything that you will receive should you decided to accept the offer. The terms and conditions that apply are standard, I can assure you."

"You're kidding me, right?" Lindsey asked when he got to the last page. "I mean, you can't be serious."

"Oh, they're dead serious."

Ethan looked over his shoulder at the contract. "What is it? What did they sneak in there?"

"They didn't sneak anything in there," Lindsey told him. "They didn't need to hide anything, not with what they have written there. They want Harris. Alive."

"Wait, you want Xander?" Faith asked. "What for?"

"Does it matter?" Jason asked.

Faith waited a moment before answering, folding her arms. "Maybe. Depends what you want him for."

"They want to take what we put inside of him," Lindsey told her. "They want whatever makes Harris the Avatar."

"And they're willing to pay handsomely. I did mention that, didn't I?" Jason said with a roll of his eyes.

Pointing to one of the pages, Lindsey said, "It's not just money they're offering. He wasn't kidding when he said there'd be something extra in it for us."

"Like I said, perks."

"I get back into Wolfram and Hart, no questions asked. Says I even get made a Junior Partner," Lindsey muttered as he flipped the page. "Ethan, says you get...what the hell. You get a pin?"

"A pin?" Ethan asked curiously. Reading where Lindsey was pointing, his eyes widened in surprise. "They can't be _serious_. A Silver Oak Pin?"

When Ethan didn't elaborate, Lindsey shook his head. "Whatever. A freakin' pin," Lindsey muttered. Continuing down the line, Lindsey stopped when it came to the part about Faith. "Well, that's interesting."

"What is?" Faith asked, balling her fist at Lindsey's tone. "What's so damn interesting?"

"Don't worry, darlin', I'm not one to judge," Lindsey grinned enjoying toying with the dark haired young girl.

Starting toward him, Faith growled, "Oh, you better start explaining yourself."

"Relax, sweetheart. I just think that it's interesting that if you sign up, they're willing to help you get rid of someone along with some kind of memory wipe."

"What?" Faith asked. She sounded surprised but, Lindsey noted, not horrified.

"Yes," Jason said joining the conversation again. "Jeffrey Robertson will be eliminated. You can even pull the trigger, if you like. As for erasing certain…memories of yours, I'm told that you would know which ones. Of course, anything you do will be covered completely by my employer. No questions asked."

"You want a wet works team, why not get Wolfram and Hart to do it?" Lindsey asked. "They're the ones taking care of this thing, anyway."

Jason turned to Lindsey, his face still looking slightly bored with the whole situation. "Wolfram and Hart, while assisting with certain aspects of this deal, aren't the ones making the decisions. My employer is."

"And just who is your employer?" Ethan asked.

"They wish to remain nameless for the time being."

"Of course they do," Ethan said with a smile. After a beat, he clapped his hands saying, "I do believe this is all too rich for my blood. It's a good show, but I think I've had my share of teamwork. Silver pin or no, I'm afraid I'm out."

Jason raised his eyebrow again, this time slightly higher just to show how amazed he was. "Are you sure, Mister Rayne? I'm told that you've been looking to get your hands on one of those pins."

"Oh, I'll get one, don't you worry about that. But on my own terms." Ethan looked to Lindsey, "What about it? Still think you can get it all back in one fell swoop?"

"If anyone has any reservations, please feel free to speak your mind," Jason said. "But keep in mind, this offer only stands if all three of you agree to it."

Lindsey didn't say anything. He was already planning on gunning for Harris, though admittedly, it was to kill him rather than bring him in. There still might be a way for him to get his revenge, though. The contract said nothing about the condition Harris had to be in and there were plenty of ways to torture a person that wouldn't even be fatal.

Faith was silent as well, but Lindsey already knew her answer. Her preliminary psych report from the firm made her prime for being pushed away from the light side. Well, either that or going completely crazy and offing herself in some self-destructive way. Either way, she wasn't exactly stable. Whoever the hell that Robertson guy was also seemed to set her on edge. The firm hadn't had any mention of him in her file, but he was obviously someone she wanted to see dead.

"Well, if that's everything, I'll be off," Ethan said. He didn't bother to say goodbye, not that Lindsey expected him to. But then again, he also didn't expect what happened next.

"Miss Lehane," Jason said softly once Ethan was far enough away not to hear. "Please beat Mister Rayne to within an inch of his life."

For a split second, Faith looked shocked by the order. Then, her face lit up with malicious glee. It was unnerving to watch the switch, in Lindsey's opinion. Not the worst thing he had seen, of course. He had lunch with scarier things than some psycho back at the firm. Still, there was a twang of guilt as he watched Faith run down Ethan, tackling him to the floor. The man didn't even have time to shout out a curse as Faith mercilessly smashed his face into the ground over and over again.

"I believe Miss Lehane might be busy for some time. Would you care for a cup of coffee? Don't worry, I'm told the owner of this establishment has been taken care of for the evening, he won't mind."

Lindsey followed Jason into the gas station store and wondered what the real catch was. Even if Wolfram and Hart weren't the ones running the show this time around, if they had even a small hand in it, such as writing up the contracts, they would have something hidden so deep in the wording that they'd never find it till it was too late.

So the question was, how much were they really controlling here and if they weren't in running the show, then who the hell was?

"Oh, and Miss Lehane?" Jason called behind him. "Do _not_ kill him."


	11. Chapter 11

**_A/N:_** Hello out there in fanfiction world. I know I made a lot of people upset with what I'm doing with Faith but, well, it is what it is. Not everyone will be happy with what happens, and oh well to them. For those of you who are enjoying the story, well, glad to hear it. Alright then, the next three chapters are kind of a mini arc, just wanted to say that cause I think it reads better if you know that going in. So, with that done, thanks to Greywizard for the great job as a beta and to everyone who is reading and to everyone who reviews. On with show!

**Chapter 11**

"Thanks for coming with me," Xander said, looking around in front of him as he walked down one of the many rows of tombstones.

"Don't worry about it. I'm happy to come along. I just wish Oz was able to make it." Willow said with a slight frown.

Xander was a little surprised that Oz had been OK with Willow coming along on her own for the patrol - well, with only him and no one else with them. Even with everything going on, it was still touch and go when it came to the three of them, ever since the whole 'fluke' incident. Xander knew that nothing was going to happen between him and Willow, but the important thing was making sure that Oz understood that they respected him. If it weren't for the fact that he was still in the wheelchair, he'd be with them, right at Willow's side. It said a lot about his trust of Willow, if not him, that he was alright with her being here alone with him.

Originally, Xander had planned on doing a patrol with Buffy, but at the last minute, she changed her mind and opted to go with Angel, instead. It had been slightly upsetting to the young man. He had hoped that he could use the time to not only search for vampire Willow, but also to try and clear the air between him and Buffy. He had tried a few other times, but she always managed to find some excuse to escape the conversation, either running off to class or to train or do something else that excluded him. She was never mean about it, but there was definite tension between the two of them and, at the moment, it seemed like only Xander wanted to fix the problem.

It was fine for the moment. Vampire Willow, and he _really_ wanted to come up with a new name for her and soon, had started to make herself known in really freaky ways. For starters, she had started leaving bodies in the alley way by the Bronze, each with something carved or burned into their skin. Sometimes, it would be something odd like as 'Bad Puppy'. Those weren't nearly as bad as the hearts with an X and a W burned into them, and by hearts, he meant literal human hearts. Her affection, or obsession, with Xander hadn't waned even without any contact between the two. It was rather disturbing, knowing that it was his fault that the vampire version of his best friend was like this. Well, another dimension's version of him, that is. He still didn't have a plan as to what to do with her, if and when he found here, but he knew that it had to stop.

He didn't want to kill her; he didn't want to kill anyone. But it was becoming harder and harder to rationalize the ideal he was trying to live up to and the reality he lived in. It was his fault that Vamp Willow was out there and killing. Those lives were on his hands, on his soul. In Aang's world, and even his world, you could lock up someone who couldn't be left out in society. With vampires and demons, it was a completely different story. There was no jail that he knew of that would or could hold them. So, where did that leave him? He didn't want to kill them, but he couldn't really stop them without killing them. He'd spent many sleepless nights trying to figure out what to do, and so far had no answers.

Xander knew that it had to be hard for Willow to be patrolling for the vampire as well. After all, it _was_ Willow that they were hunting, even if it was some twisted, half-crazed, demonic version of her. He didn't even want to think about what it would be like if it was his double running around and they had to chase him. Shuddering, Xander thought about what it would mean if an evil double of him with the power of the Avatar had somehow shown up. That was definitely not something he wanted to ever deal with.

"Everything alright?" Willow asked.

"Yeah, just a really disturbing thought was all," Xander told her, making a face. "Nothing to worry about."

Willow smiled, enjoying the peaceful walk. It probably said a lot about them when walking through a cemetery and simply not fighting anything counted as a light, fun filled evening. One of these days they were going to have to have a long talk about doing regular normal people things, if they even could at this point. Who knew if they would ever be normal at this point? Maybe Willow had the right idea about roasting marshmallows over a demon on fire - maybe normal was relative. After all, it would be normal for him to travel around on a giant Sky bison if he was in the Avatar world.

"Man, what I wouldn't give for a Sky bison right now," Xander muttered.

"You want a what?" Willow giggled, not sure she had heard him correctly.

Blushing slightly, realizing he had been heard, Xander returned her smile. "A Sky bison. It's a type of animal back where Aang comes from. Not really practical here, but man, would it be fun to have one. Air Nomads would get them when they were little kids, so they could bond with them."

"Aw, that sounds cute," Willow cooed. "So, was it really a bison or was it like a mini-bison, like the size of a puppy?"

"Try the size of a house," Xander chuckled. "When a monk became old enough, they would journey the world on their own, visiting different villages and different nations. You would do it when you were younger also, but usually with the older monks. Anyway, the way you would get around is on your Sky bison. You could cover a lot of ground flying on the back of them. Plus, it's also fun as all hell."

"A giant…flying bison…" Willow's eyes were wide as Xander gave her the short description of the animal. "They have giant flying animals?"

"Will's, they have _dragons_ there."

Xander inhaled deeply at the thought of Ran and Shou, the Firebending dragons. He would love to see the look on his friends' faces if they came across something like that. Hell, taking them and plopping them in the middle of the Earth Kingdom would make their heads explode at the things there. Never mind the bending, just the animals and the landscape would be enough to send them over the edge. But if they had to deal with the lack of technology, the lack of showers and ease that they're used to just didn't exist there. That's not to say that he would be comfortable there, but he wouldn't mind it. He knew that there were so many amazing things and places that existed there that he could easily ignore the lack of televisions and radios, though their severe shortage of Twinkies was another story all together.

Looking off in the distance, Xander said, "You know that there's this place there that has Elephant Koi fish that are huge, I mean forty feet long, easy! Anyway, people would wait for them to pass then jump onto their backs and ride them. Do you know why? Because it was fun, that's all. That's what's normal for some of the people there and when I think about it…it doesn't seem all that strange to me. Fact of the matter is, I'm kind of sad that I'll never be able to do it or any of the number of things that Aang can."

When he saw Willow looking at him with sympathy, and a bit of confusion, Xander shook his head. "Sorry, just got lost in my thoughts for a bit."

"It bothers you a lot, huh?"

"You guys have been great, really. I mean, considering all the weirdness this has brought on you guys, you've been doing better than I think anyone could be expected to do. But…yeah, it's been kind of rough."

"I can't imagine what it must be like," Willow told him. "How do you deal with having all those memories on top of your own? Wouldn't it make you, well, kind of crazy after a while?"

"If they were memories, maybe, but…I don't even know what you would call it. But it's more frustrating at times than anything else. I can't talk about anything without explaining what it is I want to talk about beforehand. Just once I'd like to _talk about that place without all the blank stares or to not just use my bending while fighting. Don't think I don't see you guys look at me out of the corner of your eyes when I do it. I know you guys are trying but_-"

"Uh, Xander?" Willow said tentatively. "You kind of, well, slipped out of English…again."

Stopping, Xander smacked his hand against his head. "Dammit."

"Oh! But, but it's alright! I mean, I don't mind listening again, just, you know, try it this time in English," she said enthusiastically.

Shaking his head, Xander let out a breath. "It's…fine, don't worry about it."

Willow fixed him with a frown. "Hey, come on. How are we supposed to help you if you don't tell as anything?"

"Relax, Red. He'll talk when he wants to, won't ya, Boy Toy?" Faith said stepping out from behind a mausoleum to their right.

"Holy crap! Faith, where the hell did you come from?" Xander said a hand to his chest, his heart racing from the Slayer's sudden appearance.

"Just on patrol, heard some noise and turned out it was you two," Faith told him. "Gotta say, if your aim is to let every vamp in this place know where ya are, you're doing a good job."

"Guess we were getting a bit loud, huh?"

"Hey, no skin off my nose. Not like ya couldn't take care of yourself, right?" Faith said with a wink.

"Well, with Willow along with me I'd pity the vampire that tried to take us on," Xander said giving Willow a smile.

"Yeah, I'm sure Red would have wicked dangerous with that whole floating pencil thing," Faith said, cocking her head slightly.

Xander saw Willow's demeanor change from happy to annoyed instantly. While Faith and Willow had never been best friends, their digs at each other were mostly said while the other wasn't around. Not that there wasn't hostility, but the comments were kept to a minimum. So it was a bit of a shock to hear Faith being so up front with her insult.

"Hey!" Willow said indignantly.

Faith walked closer to the two of them and shrugged. "Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm sure that if Xander held 'em in place, you'd get 'em no problem."

"I can do more than float a pencil!" Willow said folding her arms. "And at least I've been backing up Buffy and Xander when they go out on patrol, instead of just running around on my own."

Instead of the Faith Xander expected to see, one with hands balled into fist and stalking towards Willow with murderous intent, he was surprised when Faith just stood there. Her eyes flashed with anger and something dangerous, but she didn't attack.

Hooking her thumbs into her pockets, Faith smiled coldly. "Don't get me wrong, not saying you don't have your place. Just that maybe out in the field ain't it. Maybe somewhere more…closed off, ya know?"

"Hey, Willow's been coming along on patrol just as long as me," Xander said defending her along with himself a bit.

Willow nodded her head. "Darn right, I've been. We've been doing this almost as long as Buffy has."

"Not knocking the dedication. But you're supposed to be the big brain, right? Wouldn't it be more useful to be comin' up with some plan or hittin' the books and learning how to set the hell bitch version of you back to wherever she came from?" Faith waited for a minute before shrugging. "But hey, what do I know, right?"

Whatever shot Willow was ready to fire back with died in her throat. Faith had hit a nerve with her last comment and Xander didn't even bother trying not to wince. After the initial shock of Willow's evil doppelganger running around, they had set out to find out just how she ended up in their neck of the woods. After exhausting several theories, they had hit a dead end. While there were a number of possibilities, there was no evidence proving one over the others. It wasn't until Willow offhandedly remarked on a run in with some student named Anya that they pieced together what had happened.

Willow had explained to all of them about a spell she had performed with the girl the very night that Evil Willow had come to town. She wasn't sure what the spell had been for, not really. Anya had told her it was to retrieve a necklace that she had lost, but considering what the real outcome was, no one was buying it, especially after Willow had gone over what they had done with Giles and Wesley. They both agreed it was a retrieval spell of some sort, but it was far too powerful and dark to be for some simple trinket.

If the idea had been to get that version of Willow or something else equally as dark, they wouldn't know till they spoke to Anya. The problem with that was that no one had seen or heard from Anya since that night. No one knew where she lived, either, and after a look through the school records, they found out that she wasn't even registered as a student. Either she knew they were looking and had gone to ground, or she had met up with something not so nice while trying to do whatever magic she had performed with Willow. Either way, she was in the wind.

But ever since they had learned the truth, that it was her doing that had brought the twisted version of herself to this dimension, Willow had been racked with guilt. Each body that they could attribute to the vampire was like a weight on Willow's shoulders, as well as Xander's. Even her determination to try and keep people from staking the vampire had ebbed. She couldn't stand the fact that not only was this thing a demonic version of herself, but that she was also to blame for it being lose upon this world. It didn't matter that everyone had told her not to, she wouldn't listen. It was the same reason why she was insisting that she came along on patrols. If she could stop it, she didn't want anyone getting hurt cause of something she believed she did.

Even so, Faith had a point. A rather blunt and a not too clear if it was meant as an insult point, but a point none the less. Willow was fine in the field and Xander would never tell her differently. He would never push her out or tell her that she couldn't be there right beside him or Buffy when they went out. However, Faith was right. At times like this, Willow's strong suit was in research, not in fighting. Even if she was good enough to take on scores of vampires by herself, she was still way better at research than the rest of them were, outside of Giles, of course. If she could find a way to send Evil Willow back, it wasn't going to be done out here.

Excusing himself from Faith, Xander pulled Willow off to the side. "You alright?" he asked quietly.

Muttering something unintelligible, Willow looked at the ground. When she spoke coherently, it was still at the floor. "She's right. I shouldn't be out here."

"What? No! You have every right to be out here," Xander told her. "Even without all my uber-bending abilities, you think I would have backed down from a patrol?"

"That's not what I mean," she replied sadly. "I…I shouldn't be out here, not when I could be helping where it mattered, where I could do the most good. I'm not a fighter."

Xander went to respond, but stopped himself. He was just following his instincts and coming to Willow's defense, even if it was her he was defending herself from. But, he had taken her aside to talk to her about this very thing. Normal patrol, he wouldn't keep Willow from it at all as long as she was up to it. But, a patrol that was meant to smoke out a master vampire version of herself? He should have had enough sense to keep her out of it. Spirits, was he really that stupid?

"It's not about being able to fight or not, it's about where I can do the most good," she added.

"Yeah," Xander said soberly. "Giles is still at the library. I'll walk back with you, make sure nothing happens."

"What about you? What happened to 'No one should patrol alone'?"

Xander thought about it for a moment. He was pretty sure Willow wouldn't like the idea, hell, he was pretty conflicted about it himself, but it made the most sense. Turning to Faith, he asked, "Hey, feel like sticking with me for a light walkthrough?"

With something of a predatory smile, Faith replied, "Sure thing. Was getting a bit bored doing it myself, anyway. If you think you can keep up that is."

"We'll see who leaves who in the dust," Xander said smirking. Turning back to Willow, he saw her frowning slightly. Rubbing her shoulder a bit, he said, "Come on. Let's get you to where you need to be. Besides, Avatar powers don't come with the increased desire to research. The more you do, the less I have to."

"Purely selfish reasons, huh?" Willow asked not able to stop herself from smirking.

"Well, it was either somebody else did it or I bury the library in the desert. Don't think I couldn't do it, either. We Avatars have a history of burying libraries, just ask Wan Shi Tong."

"Buried a library? Cool," Faith said coming up on Xander's other side.

"No, it's not!" Willow countered looking slightly affronted. "You're joking, right? Tell me you're joking?"

Xander started walking out of the cemetery, each girl making sure they kept up, making sure he didn't say anything else. It was a lot more fun when he let Willow's mind wander and besides, it wasn't as if they would really care to listen, anyway.

* * *

It took less time than he thought it would to drop Willow off at the library. Giles was grateful for the assistance and even more surprised that Faith was actively seeking somebody else to go on patrols with. It was more common, especially as of late, for her to simply go on her own and only went with anyone else when Giles or Wesley told her to, usually with Buffy. Even then, she would have an attitude about it and Buffy would complain for the next three days about Faith's style of slaying.

Xander was less happy about her patrolling with him than he had been before they left the library though. She would sometimes walk ahead of him in a way that he could only describe as being way to distracting for his own good. There was no way she didn't know that her hips were swaying a bit more than usual or that if she stopped him because she "heard something", her fingers would linger just a bit longer on his arm. It wasn't bad. In fact, it was making him feel good. It was just more than a little unnerving. Here was the girl that he had lost his virginity to, who had then thrown him out of her room and hadn't really said more than two words to him unless it was one biting remark or another, and now she was sometimes draping herself on his arm? The awkward meter was definitely up there.

Keeping his body and mind in control, Xander managed to walk through the park with only a minimal amount of idiocy. He would swear up and down that the tree root came out of nowhere and tripped him if anyone asked.

"I don't know about you, but I'm starting to think this chick isn't coming out tonight," Faith said restlessly. They had been patrolling for almost an hour in a half and hadn't come across as so much as a fledgling.

As Faith bent over to fix her boots, Xander made sure to keep his eyes fixed on anything other than the impressive amount of cleavage on display in front of him. "Yeah, it's, uh, getting kind of annoying, really."

"Tell me about it," Faith grunted. "No one's seen her ass since you and her tussled that night and then she goes around leaving creepy ass messages on dead bodies? Fucking crazy."

"Well, that's the thing about an unstable vampire, they always keep you on your toes."

"Pain in the ass, if you ask me," she groused standing up. "Feel like the nights been a total waste."

"Sorry about that. Even without finding Evil Willow, we usually come across at least a few vampires or a demon or two."

"That what you calling her? Evil Willow?" Faith said with a snort.

"I was going to go with Darth Willow but it seemed to lack something. Or maybe it made it worse. I can't remember which."

Faith sauntered over next to Xander in a way that had his breathing start to hitch. When she put her hand on his arm, running her fingers up and down giving him goose bumps, he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to stand straight for much longer.

"I don't know, maybe I was wrong. Might not be a total waste," Faith said, her voice heavy.

"Uh, is that, um, is that so?" Xander managed to squeak out.

While his body was busy reacting the way any normal healthy heterosexual teenage male would react to Faith's touch, his mind was busy freaking out.

First, he processed that Faith was not only touching him, but being all seductive about it. OK, maybe not so seductive, but for Faith is was seductive. Even with his sometimes dense brain he knew that this was a major come on. But, it also was a little strange to him. Faith seemed to have done a complete one eighty on her thoughts of him. Could she have changed her mind in a matter of days without him noticing?

While the idea of a beautiful girl throwing herself at a guy should have been all well and good, to Xander it was downright scary. Having been on the receiving end of a whole _town_ of women doing that very thing, he was a getting freaked out. Considering that this was Faith, it went double.

"Whoa, OK, um, let's just…stop for a moment," Xander said stepping back. "Not saying I don't like the attention, 'cause really, who wouldn't?"

"Then what's the problem?" she asked, her voice gaining a slight edge to it before softening. "Not like its new territory for us."

"Well, that's kind of the thing. We never really, uh, talked about last time."

Faith looked at him confused for a moment. "What's there to talk about?"

"You're serious?" Xander asked raising an eyebrow. "Listen, what happened that night…it doesn't happen to me."

"Yeah, I got that. So what does that have to do with now?"

She still looked as if she wasn't getting it, something that only added to Xander's own confusion. Sighing, Xander was readied to respond in a way he hoped wouldn't get him hit but stopped when he heard giggling off to the side. All thoughts of him and Faith stopped as the turned to face the girlish sound.

To be fair, they should have expected it. They spent the whole night looking for Vampire Willow and the moment their guards were down, she popped up. Well, more like walk right into view from behind a large tree as eerily as supernaturally possible. She was dressed much the same as she had been before, all tight black leather and lace. Though where before, she was slightly manic and crazy, she seemed much more lucid now. She seemed more comfortable, more confident, and it scared the hell out of him.

"You know, I don't think he likes you very much," Evil Willow said as she leaned against the tree, arching her back slightly. "Don't take it personally. Xander's always been rather picky."

"Son of a bitch!" Faith yelled charging after the vampire.

The distance was enough that it would take Faith a few seconds to cross, giving Xander time to act.

Swinging his staff in front of him, Xander sent a wave of air towards Willow in the hopes of distracting her long enough for Faith to catch her. Unfortunately, timing an air strike against a vampire was still something of a problem since they moved faster than a normal person, something that was even truer for a master vampire such as Willow.

Gracefully, Evil Willow leapt up and into the tree, barely shaking the branches as she went while his attack passed by harmlessly underneath her. It was impossible to tell where she was going in the dark and with the leaves obscuring his vision. The trees in the Sunnydale were nowhere near as large as the ones that he knew existed in the Avatar's world so jumping up and onto a solid branch and fighting it out was out.

"Damn it!" Faith yelled slowing down to stand under the tree. "Where'd that bitch go?"

"Up in the tree," Xander replied, moving next to her. Nothing moved as he continued to scan the branches, hoping to catch a glimpse of her, but that didn't mean much. Vampires were swift and silent when they wanted to be.

"You could always come up here and get me," Willow called down to them, her voice too soft to peg down where she was.

"Why don't you come down here, so I kind beat you to death!" Faith shot back, her hands balled into fist.

Again, Willow laughed sending chills down Xander's spine. It was way too unsettling to hear something so creepy with his best friend's voice. "I will, but not yet. We have to wait."

"Wait? What the fuck for?" Faith asked, glancing at Xander for information.

"You can't have a party without guests," she answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And when my Xander wakes up, there's going to be one hell of a celebration."

Casting a nervous look around him for any signs of other vampires or demons, Xander started to panic. "Alright, I've had enough of Creepy McGothenstien, how about you?"

Not waiting for a reply, Xander jumped up high above the top of the tree, sucking in a deep breath the whole way. With all of the air in his lungs, Xander exhaled quickly, stripping leaves off of branches and breaking some of the weaker, smaller limbs off altogether. It didn't knock Evil Willow out of the tree, but then again, he didn't expect it to. It did, however, give him a better view without all of the leaves getting in the way.

As Xander dropped back to the ground, he spotted Willow perched on one of the lower, thicker branches right above Faith. He didn't have enough time to warn her before the vampire literally got the drop on her, not if he wanted to do any good. As he fell, he swung his arms in a sweeping semi circle starting at Faith. The air that he used to lift her off the ground and send her flying backwards wasn't graceful or delicate. It was quick and dirty and probably hurt like hell as Faith tumbled to stop ten feet away, but it got the job done.

Landing in a crouch, Xander looked up in time to get grabbed and thrown by the irate vampire.

"I really have to remember how damn fast she is," he muttered getting to his feet.

Ready for her to press her attack, Xander was surprised to see the look of pity on her face as the vampire stood a few feet away.

"Xander, sweetie, I get that you think you're helping but you're not. This isn't fun," Willow began to say before grinning impishly. "OK, it _is_ fun. But just think of the fun we'll have after it's over! There'll be screaming and blood and _fire_ in the streets. It'll be just like our first night together. Don't you want to have fun?"

"I'm more of the stay in and watch Doctor Who reruns," Xander replied trying to catch sight of Faith out of the corner of his eyes, to no avail.

Growling in frustration, Willow's face changed to her vampire one. "You'll change your mind. You just need convincing."

Tensing for an attack, Xander readied himself. Like most things in his life, it didn't go as planned. Instead of rushing him, Willow sped backwards, hiding herself in-between a thicket of trees. Keeping his guard up, Xander couldn't help but stare after her dumbly.

"Um, I think we…won?" Xander called out to Faith, hoping she could hear him and that he hadn't accidently knocked her out.

"Speak for yourself!" Faith yelled back to him.

Turning fully around, Xander was shocked to find the dark haired Slayer taking on five vampires at once, with another three waiting on the sidelines. They weren't going after her like vampires normally would and instead acted more like a pack of wolves. A few of them would rush Faith, forcing her to give them all of her attention. They would then back off and let the other two attack, who would usually land at least one blow, if not more. It was all far too fast paced for a normal person, even Xander, to follow. They went through this routine three times in the few seconds Xander had been watching. If they wanted to tire her out before moving in for the kill, it made them smarter than most vampires. Smart vampires were scary vampires, in his book.

With a running leap, Xander cleared the gap between him and Faith, landing next to her and startling the group of vampires. Not wasting the moment, he waved his arms out and around his body, forcing the air to spread out in a dome shape, knocking all of the vampires over and to the ground.

"You good?" Xander asked, watching the vamps get to their feet, growling angrily.

"I'm about to be," Faith said through gritted teeth.

Xander frowned, hearing the pain in her voice. He didn't know how many hits she had taken or how bad any of them had been, but she wasn't up to fighting form. If she was too hurt, then she might get herself killed.

"Feel up to running?" Xander asked.

"Screw that!" Faith snarled, rushing the two vampires closest to her.

Blasting the ones closest to him several feet away, Xander frowned. "I was afraid of that."

Ducking under a swipe from one of the vampire's clawed hands, Xander tried thinking of what to do. There were eight vampires and only two of them were occupied by Faith, not to mention Evil Willow somewhere in the background doing whatever the hell she was doing. As he dodged and maneuvered around the vampires gunning for him, using not a small amount of his Airbending skill and agility, he desperately tried to come up with a plan to get them out of here safe and sound. From the sounds of it, Faith was more than content to stay and fight it out. Hell, she might even take a few with her, but barring any outside force or intervention, she would be brought down by trying to handle this many vampires at once.

Knocking another opponent away, this time into a tree, Xander was starting to lose track of what was going on. It was something that was easy to do when faced with numerous enemies and far too dangerous to let happen. There was no way to tell if Faith was holding her own or how many vampires they were still up against. For all he knew, several more vampires had joined in or had been taken out.

Spinning around the two in front of him, Xander leapt over another, cursing himself that, once again, he hadn't brought any kind of water out with him. A Waterbender without their element was pretty much useless and he wasn't anywhere far enough in his training to begin pulling water out of the plants.

But, what no one should forget was that he was a master Airbender. Multiple opponents was something of a specialty for them.

Landing a dozen feet away from his nearest opponent, Xander was finally able to catch a glimpse of Faith and almost wished he hadn't. She was still in the fight, but just barely. The vampires had split up into equal groups, attacking four on one. Well, three on one for Faith, he corrected himself as he watched her stake one of them, only to be caught by a vicious cross by vampire number two, which was followed up by a haymaker by vampire number three, leaving Faith more than a bit wobbly. She had taken far too many hits in a short amount of time. There wasn't any way she could survive much more of this and come out on the winning end. These vampires were organized and efficient, not the usual type that they came across, and while Faith was no slouch as a fighter, Giles was right. Her style of fighting was far too emotional, far too wild, to be of any use when going up against an organized force. She was a Slayer and had energy to spare, but she still burned out quicker than Buffy because of how she fought.

Shoving his palms towards the ground, Xander kicked up as much dirt as he could with the wind he created, wishing that he could bend the damn earth, already. Still, the air was doing its job and a thick cloud of dirt was floating in the air quickly, and while vampires didn't have to breathe, they still had a tendency to use their lungs, making most of them cough and distracting them. The dirt also helped to blind them, since no amount of super vampire vision could let them see through the dust cloud. It wouldn't last long, but hopefully, it would last long enough.

"Faith, run!" Xander yelled, jumping over the dust cloud, hoping that she would not only hear him, but would be able to make a go for it. If the vamps made a grab for her, she may be trapped.

Either the vampires weren't all that good or they had been too confused by the sudden dust storm he whipped up, because as soon as Xander's feet touched the ground, Faith came stumbling out of the dirt, looking a bit worse for wear and favoring her right side, but she was running as soon as she was able to see clearly again, even if it was slower than her normal pace.

"You getting as annoyed as I am at this bitch?" Faith yelled.

"Less yelling, more fleeing," Xander said slowing his speed to match hers.

"Fuck that shit! Stay and fight. You saying you can't take these goons?" Faith commented, speeding up slightly as the sound boots and sneakers behind them grew louder. "Fuck, give me a second to catch my breath and I'll take them."

Xander chanced a glance behind him and groaned mentally. All seven of the vampires were chasing them through the park and it didn't look as if they would be giving up anytime soon.

"No, we need to get out of here. There's no way you can stake that many on your own."

"Then dust some of the fuckers yourself! You never had a problem with it in the past."

Not bothering to reply, Xander bought his staff out in front of him and started judging distance and weight, hoping he would be able to guess right. "Faith, just hang on, alright?"

"Hang onto what?"

"To me."

Opening the glider, Xander ran in front of Faith, trusting her to do as he said. Jumping into the air, he caught the handles and felt the added weight a second later, as Faith grabbed onto his back. It was tricky in the first split second, but right before they hit the ground, Xander shot them forward on an air current that had them out-distancing the vampires by a good clip. The problem, however, was that they weren't gaining any height. Even with the strongest wind in the world, there was no way to keep them going unless they had some altitude. Without it, they would crash and tumble on the ground.

Grunting with the effort, Xander tried to give them a strong enough updraft that wouldn't send them hurtling into the skies at uncontrollable speeds. Seeing the trees in front of him getting increasingly closer, he cursed and went for broke. It wasn't a steady rise like he would have liked, but at least they didn't shoot straight up, either. They cleared the first few trees, no problem, and began to level off after that.

Faith had wrapped her arms around Xander's throat and her legs around his waist, both hurting and cutting off his air supply.

"Need…to…breath…" Xander choked out.

Faith wrapped her arms a little tighter around his neck and for a moment, Xander thought she was too put off by the idea of flying to think straight. The moment passed and slowly, she began to lessen her hold on his airway and Xander was able to start breathing again. If she had held on like that any longer, he was fairly certain they would have dropped to the ground as he began to pass out. As it was, they had already dropped a couple of feet and were currently flying in the middle of a few yards of open space between the trees.

In retrospect, he probably should have seen it coming.

Something yanked hard on his left foot, pulling him off course. He tried to correct himself, but the weight was still there and whatever had his ankle held it with a vice like grip. There wasn't any way to take control or right himself and in an instant, Xander and Faith stopped gliding and fell, hitting the ground hard.

Xander knew that he should have been able to take the fall and either roll with it, like Faith did, or simply create an aircushion for them, but whoever had his ankle hadn't let go and squeezed it even harder, distracting him. So instead of a graceful and less painful landing, he was subjected to landing on his back and staring up at the night sky. At least he had the presence of mind to close his glider, clutching the staff to his chest to keep it safe.

Not wanting to just lie around and wait for whatever had grabbed him to get up and pick them off, Xander fought to clear his head and sit up. Hot white pain exploded in front of his eyes and when his vision cleared, he was on his side, tears running down his face and the taste of bile in his mouth.

"Don't worry, baby," Evil Willow purred.

Chancing a glance, Xander was horrified to see the vampire standing over him with a mock look of sadness on her face. It would have been pulled off better had her eyes not been dancing with predatory glee.

"I'll make the hurting stop," she continued, reaching down and picking him up by his arm. "Well, some of the hurting, anyway."

He wanted to struggle, to fight and to get away from her. At the moment, though, he could barely keep his head from lolling from side to side without throwing up again. The pain in his head was excruciating, and even though he knew he should do something, his body just wouldn't listen. His only hope was that Faith had managed to land better than he did and was on her way to him right now.

Twisting his arm behind his back, Willow turned him around, holding his neck and head up. "See that, baby? That's going to be our first meal together. Slayers blood's an aphrodisiac they say."

Despite the nausea and the pain, Xander's eyes widened. Faith was being held on her knees, a vampire holding each arm and pulling them back, while another held her by the neck. She was struggling, but without any leverage, she didn't have much of a fighting chance.

"You always did like to bring me something special," Willow whispered into his ears as the sounds of her face shifting could be heard.

His neck burned and there was a sharp, stinging sensation. Pain radiated from his neck, spreading out to the rest of his body.

Then, there was nothing but white.

* * *

The night was quiet, which wasn't really all that bad when she considered the many reasons that would make the night be less so. Vampires, demons, zombies and any of the other numerous hell beasties would mean that people could be hurt, but, more likely, they would probably be dead. So while the Slayer in her cried out for a fight, the girl, the human part of Buffy was slightly thankful for it. Even if she was bored, it meant that people were at least somewhat safe. She didn't bother to think about the fact that even if she didn't see anything roaming the streets, didn't mean that they weren't out there. That way led to madness.

Still, walking through the streets of Sunnydale late at night with the comfortable, if slightly chilly, spring air was somewhat comforting. It would have been better had Angel been there to enjoy it with her, like she had said he would, but he was following his own leads on the whole vampire Willow situation. Leads, unfortunately, that would have never shown their faces had the Slayer been within ten blocks of Angel. So, for tonight, she was on her own. It might have been fun to patrol with Faith, but that would have gotten old, fast. Patience and down time didn't seem to be two things that the other Slayer did well. God only knew what would have happened had she been with Faith tonight with nothing to slay.

Xander wasn't an option since he was off with Willow doing their own patrol. It had frightened her at first that her friends had even considered doing it by themselves, but she had calmed down somewhat after her brain reminded her of just what Xander could do. She no longer believed tying them both to chairs and smacking sense into them was the right thing to do, but she was still slightly nervous. Besides, Xander had said it was just a little search for any signs of the demonic version of Willow, nothing more, nothing less. He had even promised an oath as the Avatar not to run needlessly into danger, and to make a run for it, if things became too tough for them to handle.

Pausing by the mouth of an ally to check for anything, she replayed the last couple of months' events in her head and wondered if things could possibly get any stranger.

First, Xander gets all powered up from something that happened a year ago and, because of it, now had a target painted on his back from, of all things, a law firm in L.A. Never mind the fact that they had killed his parents, burned down his home and tried to drag him off to who knows where, Giles made it sound as if they weren't done yet. It made everything all that much more tense since they could never tell what was your average run of the mill Hellmouth stuff and what was over the top and well thought out evil law firm stuff, if there even was any.

Xander was another matter all in himself. She had seen him do his whole bending thing with air and water and impressed wasn't even the word. The way he moved, the way he controlled those elements, it was downright scary. Not in a 'Run after him and stake him' kind of way, but it definitely raised the hairs on the back of her neck. He was still Xander at times, but other times, it seemed as if he was someone else. The way he had thrown himself into his training, into researching everything there was to research about the Avatar's world that was known of here, it was all decidedly not Xander like. It worried her that he may be focusing too much on the whole thing.

Never mind the fact that he outright refused to kill any vampire or demon, something that they still argued about, if somewhat civilly at this point, but she was starting to doubt that he could. Watching him train, going up against him when they sparred, she admitted that he was good and could do a hell of a lot of cool things with the elements, but they didn't seem all that threatening. Blowing air around, using water as whips or freezing it to trip people up were all nifty tricks and could be put to good use in a fight, but they lacked the strength to do more. They were an annoyance and good at confusing an opponent, but at most, they would probably only do enough to trap someone and to be used defensively. If he got lucky, he might be able to knock them out. She worried that he would get in over his head, thinking he could do more than what he was capable of and get himself hurt. What would happen if he actually did run into the other Willow?

Groaning in her head as she continued on her way, Buffy almost slammed her fist into a brick wall out of sheer annoyance of the vampire version of one of her best friends. She refused to call her Evil Willow as Xander was doing, but it would be nice to have something to call her. She hadn't even had the decency to change her name to something else when she had been turned, to make the whole thing even slightly less confusing. Still, they had to deal with her, and fast. Her sick and twisted infatuation with Xander was escalating and the body count was getting high and, unlike with Angelus, they had no way of knowing what this Willow would do.

Running a hand through her hair in frustration, Buffy no longer thanked the universe for a quiet night and wanted nothing more than for something to jump out so she could pummel it.

She found herself across from the park and thought about heading inside. She knew that Xander and Willow had planned to go through it, since it was a bit safer than the cemeteries but still a favorite for the undead and evil to lurk in. It couldn't hurt to take a walk through, and if she just happened to bump into Xander and Willow, than they wouldn't object to her coming along, could they? And if she came across the _other_ Willow, well, then she would get her wish and have something decidedly appropriate to hit.

Half way across the street, Buffy heard what could only be described as a large crack resounding through the night air. She tensed and a split second later, she found herself being lifted off her feet and flung back the way she came, crashing into a parked car that promptly flipped over with her going along with it. The sound of the rushing wind was deafening and the dirt being blown with the wave of air was fast enough to scratch at parts of her exposed hands and face.

The wind died down in a handful of seconds and Buffy peered above the car's underbelly, which was now pointed up. She felt her jaw drop slightly as she took in the destruction in front of her.

Trees had been uprooted and not just small saplings either. Some of the trees that were on the ground or had fallen on top of cars were large enough to reach the roof of most two story homes, if not taller. Car alarms blared all around her as she stood up, wincing as her back screamed in protest. She saw that almost all of the cars and the homes behind her had their windows blown in. Dust and dirt still lingered in the air and some of it had spread out onto the sidewalk and street outside of the park.

Ignoring the pain in her back from hitting the car, Buffy took off at a dead run. She didn't need know what had just happened to know that Xander was involved.

She just hoped she got there before he got himself killed.


	12. Chapter 12

**_A/N:_** Here wew go folks, another chapter up and ready to go. Again, thanks to Greywizard for the betaing help. If not for that, I would be hearing a lot about my puncuation and the like. Also, classes are back up and running so between them and work, there might be a longer space between updates, but I will do my best. Thanks to those who have been staying with it and those who have left me reviews, those are always nice to see. Oh, if some of you are still upset about my "crazy Faith" thing, you might not enjoy part of this, but again, there is a reason. Well, hope you guys enjoy. Thanks again.

Chapter 12

"Ow."

Giles twitched his eyebrow.

"Ow."

The eyebrow twitch turned into a small tick.

"Ow."

The tick developed into the grinding of teeth.

"Ow."

Turning around in the passenger seat, Giles glared at Xander. "If you don't stop that this instant, I'm going to put you in a straight jacket, just to keep you from poking at it!"

Looking annoyed, Xander put his hand on the bandage on his neck, his fingers pulling on it gently. "It's not my fault! No one said anything about the stitches being so damn itchy!"

"The doctor made several remarks about it," Giles replied testily.

"She did?" Xander asked, honestly. Turning to Buffy in the seat next to him, he asked, "She did?"

Trying not to laugh, Buffy replied, "Yep, a few times in fact."

"Well…where was I?"

"I think you were trying to pull the bandage off," Joyce said from the driver seat with laughter in her voice.

"And she didn't try to stop me? What kind of a crackpot was she?"

"The kind that got fed up after stopping you the first three times you did so in front of her," Giles remarked. "Now, stop picking at it before you rip open the stitches"

Turning back around, Giles pointedly ignored Xander's mutterings and Buffy's playful teasing. He refused to acknowledge the smile on Joyce's face as she continued driving, glancing every so often in the rearview at the two teenagers in the back seat. He most certainly ignored the smile that threatened to pull at the corner of his own lips. He refused to show his own amusement at the antics of his charges, especially when one of them was the cause for his frustration at the moment.

Granted, it wasn't Xander's fault that he had ended up in the hospital. But after nearly ten hours, half of which Xander was unconscious for, Giles was more than a little bit on edge. The lack of sleep, in addition to his worry and the confusion over the whole ordeal, was all just a bit much. Everyone had been feeling it, the weariness of the situation.

Willow and Oz had been the first to arrive, even before either Giles himself, or Joyce. They would have been the last to leave if Buffy and her mother hadn't insisted, and then forced them to go home. Had Xander not been awake and looking much better, which had something to do with the pain killers and the three units of blood they had to put into him, they probably wouldn't have listened even then. Xander had told them both to go as well, though a bit less forcefully than the two Summers women. Giles knew that the painkillers had made Xander a tad more…touch oriented than he normally was, but when Xander kept caressing Oz's spiked hair, it helped to get the couple to leave. The memory of it would most definitely be brought up later though, when Xander was feeling more himself and able to fully appreciate it.

Surprisingly, even Cordelia had made an appearance, albeit a brief one. It had been a tense few moments when the young woman had arrived and even more so when she had ordered everyone out of the room, leaving her and Xander alone. Giles still wondered why he had listened to the girl, but like everyone else, he found himself out in the hall. She had only stayed for fifteen minutes and hadn't bothered to say goodbye when she left, simply walking past everyone in a hurry. Xander had looked a bit wistful when they saw him afterwards, but he covered it up quickly.

They had to wait till Xander had woken up to find out what had happened. With only Buffy's own experience and description of the area she found Xander and Faith in to go on, they had been extremely concerned.

Xander and Faith were unconscious and on the ground near a small clearing of trees, or what was left of it. Whatever grass that had been there had been ripped up, along with enough dirt to leave a small depression in the ground a few yards around them. All of the trees around them except the very oldest had been torn right out of the earth. Since it was a park, there wasn't much more damage that could be done, but outside of it, things were quite different. Luckily, the only residential part to be affected was where Buffy had been standing before attempting to enter the park herself. While no one had been killed, three people were injured by the flying glass and debris that was carried by the wind. Xander was extremely relieved that no one had been killed, as were all of them.

After being awake and off the painkillers for a bit, Xander had explained what had happened. It was a terrifying thought to realize just how badly things could have gone had Willow still been with Xander. Faith, a trained Slayer and fighter had been taken down with such efficiency that there was no doubt in their minds what would have happened had Willow been there in her place. What was an even more sobering was Xander's calm, if somewhat disappointed, explanation of how he was the one who had destroyed that part of the park.

It had shocked Giles to realize that he was capable of doing that much damage, even though Xander had told them he was, on multiple occasions. In fact, if Giles recalled, the Avatar, and thus Xander, was able to do so much more as he got older. One of the stories in the book from Wesley's father recounted a past Avatar, Roku, Xander said his name was, battling an erupting volcano. Even though he ultimately lost his life in the end, the fact that he hadn't been killed instantly and had been winning for a time was mind boggling.

But, it was everything that Xander had already told them that was truly staggering. He had tried to explain to them what it was he could do, what he would be able to accomplish in time, but they hadn't been able to truly wrap their minds around it. It was like trying to imagine over a billion people living in China. Everyone understood what the number represented, but no one could really imagine it, could understand on a physical level just how many people that meant.

What troubled Giles even more was that if Xander was capable of that, even though he said it was only because he had accidently entered into the Avatar state, why hadn't there been any signs of it earlier? Giles had watched him practice, watched him spar with Buffy and go through his forms, but he never expressed being able to draw on that much power. It was always….subtle, the way he moved the elements. He was amazing when bending air and getting quiet good with his Waterbending, but it was never anything that matched up with his own description of other benders or previous Avatars. There were really only two good explanations that Giles could come up with which explained why that was:

Either he wasn't as adept at bending yet as other Avatars, and may never be.

Or he was holding back.

If he wasn't as skilled, then the only thing he could do was train more and hope that the lack of benders in this world wouldn't hurt his ability to become better. Giles had come up with a few ideas that could possibly move along his training, but at the present time, he didn't think Xander needed them. He was progressing well all on his own under the almost weekly sessions with Aang.

What was more disheartening, but probably more likely, was that Xander was holding back when he knew someone was watching. Perhaps they had all been a bit too wary around his powers to make him comfortable to show himself fully. God, he, himself, had even threatened to kill him should his abilities prove to be too much of a threat. Hell, early on he had made the veiled threat several times! Of course, he didn't feel that way now, not entirely. True, he would do whatever needed to be done should anyone prove to be a threat to this world, but he didn't believe that would be the case with Xander, not anymore. Hearing the way he spoke, watching how he had changed in ways that were both so subtle and so blatant, it was impossible to feel Xander would be a threat. Well, not to the world, anyway.

If Xander really was holding back on their accounts, Giles needed to figure a way to break him out of that. If he wasn't training to his fullest capability than it would only serve to stunt his growth and bring harm to those he tried to protect. Giles wished that he would be able to eliminate his fears about just how powerful Xander may be, to not let that worry and awe show, but he couldn't make that promise. He would do his best, certainly, and would strive to make sure everyone else did as well. If it was some sort of fear or worry that kept Xander from being what he was, Giles refused to allow it to continue.

But…what if he did go too far? From the translations that Xander had provided, not all of the Avatars were nice.

In fact, some of the stories were downright terrifying. Whole armies wiped out in a single day and rulers usurped with barely any effort. The very face of nations had been reshaped and reformed because of what they felt needed to be done. One of the things he wondered about when going over the idea and nature of the Avatar was what shaped them. If they were truly reincarnated, was the personality of the next Avatar merely an extension of the original or was each uniquely themselves? Was there no stopping the Avatar from becoming bigger than the individual that they were born into and, if so, what did that mean for Xander, and for themselves? For that matter, what did it mean for world? This place was woefully unprepared for anything even remotely like the Avatar.

Closing his eyes, Giles tried to will away the headache that had formed. _'Right,' _he thought. _'One thing at a time.'_

The SUV stopped in front of Giles' garden apartment and the four of them started to get out.

"Come on, let's get you inside," Buffy said as she helped Xander out of the van.

"Hey, I got bit, I can still walk on my own," Xander protested.

"You had your throat torn open, lost enough blood that you needed a transfusion, and ended up in the hospital unconscious for five hours. I'm not letting you out of my sight till you are in your bed."

"If all I needed to do was end up in the hospital to get you into my bedroom, I would have let myself get bitten sooner," he shot at her, waggling his eyebrows.

"Pig," Buffy snorted, slapping him lightly on the arm before taking it and helping Xander to the apartment.

Giles didn't bother suppressing his smile this time as he watched them walk ahead. It was good to see them laughing together, despite everything that had happened. There was still a lot of tension between Xander and Buffy when it came to his stance on killing demons and vampires, and last night would only serve to further that argument. However, it didn't seem to be getting in the way of their friendship. He only wished it would stay that way.

"It's good to them laughing, isn't it?" Joyce said coming up next to him, saying what he was thinking.

Cursing himself for feeling his palms become slightly sweaty, and his throat going dry, Giles nodded his head in response. He had already seen Joyce after the whole fiasco with the charmed candy bars, and he had hoped that the awkwardness of it all would have been finished. Apparently, that was only true on her part. He still felt like a bloody teenager around here.

Clearing his throat, Giles said, "Yes, it is. It isn't as rare as some may think, but it's always better to see it more often."

The stood in silence for a moment before Joyce looked at Giles. "Are they…alright? It's just that it's so hard sometimes, to get Buffy to tell me what's going on in her life. With the…slaying part of her life, I mean." She looked back towards the apartment, frowning slightly. "I just want to make sure she's safe."

"Buffy is…" Giles began, gathering his thoughts. "Buffy is an amazing young woman, Joyce. I've seen her do things that, well, let's just say that I've seen her do things that any mother would be proud of. What she does, what all of these children do, it isn't safe. I wish I could tell you otherwise, for both our sakes. What I can tell you is that they would do anything for one and other. If any of them could protect the others from harm, they would do so in an instant, sometimes even when it isn't the best course of action."

"You're not very good at this, are you?" Joyce said, smiling now as she looked sideways at him. "Putting a mother at ease, I mean."

Chuckling, Giles shook his head. "I'm afraid not."

"I just want to know what's going on in my daughter's life. Is that so wrong? I know it's dangerous and that she wants to keep me as far away from it as possible, but I can't live like that, not anymore. Not after finding out what my daughter does."

"She wants to protect you."

"Isn't that my job?"

Nodding in understanding, Giles said, "I assume she's told you about what happened to Xander?"

"Only that he's changed. I don't understand what that means? He doesn't seem any different."

Considering the topic for a moment, Giles sighed. "It's a rather…complicated story. Not one that can be boiled down to a few moments standing outside of my apartment."

"Coffee, maybe?"

"I, um, wh-what?" Giles sputtered, caught off guard.

"No, you're right. I don't know what I was thinking," Joyce said shaking her head. "Dinner would be better, wouldn't it?"

"I-I-I…um…"

"Oh, damn it, I didn't realize the time," Joyce said suddenly, looking down at her watch. "I was supposed to be at the gallery an hour ago! Would you mind telling Buffy that I had to go?

"Oh, and Rupert? Let's try to work something out soon, could we?"

Nodding his head dumbly, wondering just what happened, Giles watched as Joyce got back into her SUV and drove away. He wasn't dense enough that he didn't understand that Joyce had effectively asked him out, but he was more lost as to why. He had been given the impression that she would rather be anywhere than alone with him, yet here she was, asking him to dinner. Granted, it was under the guise of talking about Buffy, Xander and the rest of the things that went on in their tight-knit group, but he was still bloody smart enough to read between the lines.

Without even knowing he had done it, Giles found himself in front of his apartment door. Stepping in and shutting the door, he stopped, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Whatever mental high he might have been on disappeared as he surveyed the scene in front of him. They hadn't been alone for more than a few minutes yet Buffy and Xander were huddled over the couch and whispering harshly to each other, obviously not resting as was suggested to them.

"Stop! Don't move him, he'll wake up!" Buffy hissed.

"He won't wake up if you can keep quiet," Xander shot back, whispering harshly, while his shoulders moved about slightly.

"Look, you made him move!"

"How else was I supposed to do this, huh? Besides, he just rolled over, that's all."

Coughing loudly, Giles was amused to see both teenagers jump to their feet. Wesley, whom he assumed had previously been asleep on the couch, fell onto the floor. Trying to save face, the young Watcher made an attempt to get to his feet only to fall on his face again. Both Xander and Buffy laughed though they at least tried to keep it quiet.

"What in the world…?" Wesley said, obviously confused and disoriented.

Looking past the teenagers and the couch, Giles watched Wesley try to stand up again but, just like last time, fail to do so. Looking at him for a second, it was easy to see why.

"Is there any _particular_ reason you froze Wesley's feet in a block of ice?"

Exchanging a look with Buffy, Xander said, "I was too lazy to get a bowl of water for his hand?"

Sighing, Giles turned away towards the kitchen, suddenly wishing it was later in the evening so he wouldn't get any comments about having a drink. Instead, he put on a kettle and hoped no one would notice him slipping a few splashes of whisky into his tea.

"Xander, unfreeze Wesley's feet, please. And don't leave water everywhere," Giles called back inside, not bothering to listen for an answer, adding under his breath, "It's not like you'd have any trouble with it, lazy bugger."

"Uh…Giles! Little help!" Buffy yelled.

Growling in frustration, Giles resisted the urge to slam his head into the cabinet. He knew that it was just the sleep deprivation and having his nerves frayed all night worrying about Xander, as well as Faith, but he couldn't keep the frustration out of his voice at the moment.

Coming into the living room, Giles ground out, "What? What is so important that-" then stopped.

Buffy and Wesley, feet unfrozen now, stood near Xander looking extremely apprehensive. As far as Giles was concerned, they had good reason. Both of Xander's hands were covered with what he assumed to be the water used to freeze Wesley's feet. Obviously Xander had been bending the water, but unlike any of the other times they had seen him do it, the water this time had a faint glow about it, enough so, though, that it couldn't be missed.

"Good lord," he whispered.

"Xander are you…uh…alright?" Buffy asked slightly worried.

For his part, Xander looked almost as confused as everyone else. He didn't answer, just kept staring at his hands as if he was trying to work something out.

"Xander?" Wesley asked. "Are you still, uh, you?"

"What? Of course, he's still him. What kind of a question is that?" Buffy shot.

"Every time Xander has entered the Spirit World his eyes have always glowed like that. For all we know, this could be something similar!"

"They didn't teach the difference between hands and eyes in Watchers school?"

Ignoring Buffy and Wesley as the continued to bicker, Giles took a few tentative steps forward. "Xander," he asked softly. "Xander, what's going on?"

The confused look faded from Xander's face as he continued to stare at his hands and the glowing water surrounding them. Whatever he was trying to work out, it seemed as if it finally clicked. Reaching up to his neck, Xander removed the bandage on his neck much to the shock of everyone present.

"Xander, what the hell are you doing?" Giles exclaimed reaching to stop the young man from doing any more harm to himself.

"I need to get the stitches out," Xander hissed as he started clawing at his neck.

Buffy grabbed his arm, stopping him from doing anything else. "What's wrong with you? Stop it!"

"Buffy, let go!" Xander said struggling against her grip, but his voice calm. "I mean it. I need to get them out."

"Get him to the couch," Giles ordered, seeing the Xander's neck beginning to bleed. "Damn it, he ripped the stitches! Wesley, grab the first aid kit in the bathroom, under the sink."

Buffy forced Xander to the couch, since he didn't put up much resistance, though his other hand managed to rip the rest of the stitches out. While he wasn't in any danger of bleeding out at the moment, if they didn't work carefully, the tear in his throat could open up completely again.

Before Buffy was able to restrain him further, Xander placed his hand near his neck wound, letting the water flow over it. The water glowed brighter and a low hum began to sound. When Buffy went to grab his arm again, Giles put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her.

"Wait." Giles watched with bated breath. He didn't think Xander would purposely hurt himself, but there was no telling what would happen.

The glow faded and Xander lowered his hand, bending the water into the sink in the kitchen. Sighing in relief, he said, "OK, that feels _a lot_ better."

"Xander, stop it! You're going to hurt…yourself," Buffy said, grabbing his arm again, but her voice trailed off as she got a good look at his neck.

The wound that had been there was gone. The tear created by the vampire's teeth and the subsequent stitching of said tear was supposed to leave a rather nasty scar, the doctors had said, a small price to pay in everyone's opinion. Now, as Giles moved closer, inspecting the area on Xander's neck, he could barely see any sign of it. It was only when he got within inches of it did the faint white line of scar tissue running near his collar bone become visible.

"It's OK," Xander said calmly, placing Buffy's hand to his neck. "All better, see?"

"H…how?" was all she was able to manage, which was a bit more than Giles was able to manage at the moment.

"Waterbending trick," Xander said with a shrug. "By manipulating the chi in a person's body, a Waterbender can heal some wounds or at least speed up the recovery. Well, not all Waterbenders, and they can't heal everything."

"You just, what? Forgot to mention this?"

"Actually, I didn't even know that I _could_ do it. Aang never picked it up, at least as far as I know. But…other Avatars have. When it happened, I didn't really understand what was going on then it was just…I knew."

"That's remarkable," Wesley whispered, clutching the first aid kit in his hands. "The ability to heal isn't something that anyone, even magic users, can do without a great deal of power and, even then, most don't try it. There's too much that could wrong, too much to work with. Visualizing each cell working to fix the wound, closing the skin, it's far too much work. The best most can manage is too speed up the healing process with salves."

"Oh, um…yay?" Xander said confused, not knowing how he was supposed to react. His eyes opening wide, he snapped his fingers. "Hey, is Faith still sleeping? I bet I could help take care of whatever's still left over from last night."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Giles asked exchange a quick look with Wesley. "I mean, you only just found out that you could do this."

Holding up a finger, Xander smiled. "Ah, yes. But you're forgetting something. I've already learned this. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've learned it about a hundred times." At everyone's blank look, he added, "You know, past lives and all. If they are my past lives, but you know what I mean."

"Still…I'm not sure that she will be…receptive," Wesley hedged, looking uncomfortable.

Getting up, Xander waved him off. "Come on, I'm sure she'll be fine. Besides, I owe her for sticking with me last night. It's not every night you nearly get someone killed."

"He's right, you know. We usually do that only once a week," Buffy chimed in before following Xander into the back of the apartment. "I'll make sure no one kills anyone. Besides, I want to see that again."

"Come on. I need to get some clean water first."

Giles stood to follow, wanting to observe Xander as well, but stopped when Wesley stepped in front of him, shaking his head.

Looking behind him, Wesley waited till the two teenagers were out of earshot before talking. "I need to speak to you, Mr. Giles. About…Faith. Tell me, have you noticed any odd behavior on her part as of late? Anything out of the ordinary?"

Confused, but giving him the benefit of the doubt, Giles considered it for a moment before shaking his head. "No, not really. Why?"

"That only makes it all the more troubling," Wesley said frowning.

"What are you talking about?"

Wesley looked about him again, making sure no one else had suddenly entered into the room. "Earlier this morning, while I was watching over her, Faith woke up. At first I thought she was merely confused, but it was more than that. Mr. Giles, she was crazed while awake. She kept hitting herself on the head, clawing at her own skin at times. I was afraid I was going to have to try and sedate her."

"Good lord! Is she alright?"

"She was fine, after a time. But that's the other disturbing thing. One moment she was manic and the next, she was as calm as ever, completely ignoring her previous outburst. She told me that she needed to rest, that was all. I've never seen her like this. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought she had lost her mind. To be honest-"

"Faith's gone!" Buffy yelled, cutting of Wesley, as she hurried back into the living room.

"It's true, guys. The window to the bedroom is open and her jacket's missing. She must have run," Xander added, coming up behind Buffy with a frown.

"What? Are you sure?" Wesley asked flustered.

"Um, let's see. Window open, bed empty, jacket missing, oh and Faith not anywhere in the apartment. Yeah, I'm pretty sure she's gone," Xander replied mockingly.

"Damn it," Giles muttered.

He was too tired for this right now, not that it mattered. Any thoughts of sleep, food or anything else that would be pleasant had to be put on hold. From what Wesley had said, Faith was obviously not thinking straight, though that might be putting it mildly. All he knew at the moment was that she had run off, was still injured slightly, and possibly dangerous to both herself and the general populace, depending on how bad a shape she was in.

"Right, Buffy, see if you can find her. Check where she's been staying, any place she might frequent. If she's confused, she might try to go some place she feels safe." Giles ignored the kettle whistling, his brain barely registering it.

"I'm thinking two eyes are better than one," Xander said causing everyone to look at him. Realizing his mistake, he amended himself. "Two eyes, two heads, you know what I mean. I should be out there looking for her and before anyone says the word 'injured', can I remind you all of the glowing water from before? See? Look. No more injured Xander."

Giles spoke first, not giving Buffy or Wesley the chance to shoot him down. "Are you sure? There are plenty of things that can be done that don't involve running about town."

"I'm sure, Giles. I'll be more use out there than I could in here."

Nodding his head, somewhat reluctantly, Giles agreed. It would be too much trouble to keep him here if he didn't want to be. Before they left, everyone agreed to meet back at the library before dark, which gave them about six hours to search for Faith or do whatever else needed to be done. At that point, they would need a better plan then simply running about hoping to run into her.

"Damn it, Xander!" Buffy yelled from outside.

Turning towards the door, Giles sighed. Xander's staff, which had been given to Wesley to take back here, was missing. He could only assume that, despite everything they had talked about, Xander had taken to the sky to get a better look. Again, there was nothing to do about it at the moment. What mattered was finding Faith. There was no telling where the girl was or if she was alright. He hoped, wherever she was, that she would be fine till they found her.

* * *

Sitting at the table in the kitchen, Lindsey stared blankly at the papers in front of him.

Reports from his mysterious employer were splayed out on the wood surface, some of them on top of others, filled with more information than he had thought anyone had on the Avatar or, his world. Not only that, but they weren't done in bits and pieces like he had worked with before. These were detailed accounts of the history, animals, land masses, and cultures of that world. There almost three folders dedicated to the past three Avatars alone, including the most recent one, Aang, which Harris had been possessed by. Lindsey had only asked once where all of this information had come from and had received stone cold silence in return. Apparently like most subjects that might lead back to who they were really working for, this wasn't open for discussion.

He sipped his coffee, letting his mind wander some more.

Lindsey knew that Wolfram and Hart had to be involved somehow, even if they weren't the ones directly pulling the strings. For one thing, they wouldn't let anyone else get this close to the Avatar without doing something about it. Also, if they weren't involved in this plan, Holland would have had someone else in Sunnydale making a grab for Harris long ago. Not to mention that each of their entire contracts had been drawn up by the firm and the things promised within them could only have been done with the expressed permission and backing of someone at Holland's level. But every time he tried to find out who was behind the curtain, so to speak, he would be shut down or the trail would go nowhere. It was frustrating as all hell.

Before he could get too angry about the situation, the alarm on his phone went off, letting him know it was time.

Tossing the folder in his hand on the table, he grabbed his cane and forced himself to his feet with a minimum of grimacing. He didn't mind being put up in the house, not really, but the stairs were a bitch with his leg and it wasn't as if they could just put an elevator in the place just for him. Taking the gun off the table as well, he checked it, made sure it was loaded and that the safety was on before tucking it into the back of his jeans. Just because he was supposed to be working with Faith and Ethan didn't mean he trusted the two. Faith was borderline psychotic at times and Ethan…well, Ethan was in this against his will.

A part of Lindsey felt bad for the mage. Not enough to do anything about it, of course -they needed him too much. Or at least, that's what he had been told. Truth was, Lindsey didn't know how much any of them were needed. Sure, they all had specific jobs, but a lot of it was fact finding or, in his case, gathering information and keeping people in line. He was in charge of making sure Faith and Ethan did their job. Faith was supposed to be getting close to Harris, earning his trust and getting past his emotional defenses, while Ethan was in charge of figuring out exactly who the next person in the Avatar chain would be. What the final game plan was, none of them knew, which put all of them on edge.

Ethan was too much of an unknown in Lindsey's opinion, though. After Faith pretty much rearranged his face and probably several organs, Jason had him picked up. The next day, when Jason had showed him and Faith the house the next town over from Sunnydale and explained that this was where they would be working and living, they had found Ethan in the basement completely healed. He wasn't allowed to wander about the rest of the place though. In fact, his leg had been manacled to a chain attached to the wall. It gave him a few yards to move around, but was at least three feet too short from the stairs and there wasn't any other way out of the basement, especially since they had removed any and all mystical items and anything that could be used for a ritual unless it was strictly used only for his job.

After a bit of searching, Lindsey found the bag that held the premade sandwich and a few other food items and bottles of water, picked it up and headed downstairs. Like always, he shut the door leading downstairs behind him and set the electronic lock. It wouldn't do to have Ethan somehow get lose from his chain and give him an easy out. It was just another reminder for Ethan that he was no longer working for any kind of profit at this point, just his freedom. If anyone had bothered to ask Lindsey, he would have told them that made for a crap ally. At this point, he was just waiting to see when and how Ethan would turn on them. He didn't blame him, but he didn't want to deal with it, either.

The downstairs had been set up to look like a studio apartment, which might have helped to keep Rayne in line, or at least quiet for the time being. There was a bed pushed up against the far wall with a dresser nearby. Opposite the bed were two shelves filled with a mix of books and divining instruments, the only magical tool he had been allowed and only after they were sure he couldn't use it to escape. Next to the shelves was a desk cluttered with papers and even more books. It was at the desk that he found Ethan bent over with three books open in front of him.

While Rayne didn't look happy, or particularly clean for that matter, he still had something of his old self still in him.

"Unless you've come to tell me that Faith has finally agreed to give me that sponge bath, I have nothing new to tell you."

Lindsey smiled. "Trust me, I doubt you want her hands near any part of your body. Just lunch time."

Turning around, Ethan looked at Lindsey with mock scorn. "I do hope the chef was able to make a decent steak, this time, though it would have to be better than the lobster from this morning."

Tossing the bag to Ethan, who caught it deftly, Lindsey said, "Peanut butter and jelly. I'm sure your refined pallet can deal with it."

Sighing, Ethan said, "I swear, if this keeps up I'll have words with the management."

Smiling tightly, Lindsey ignored the snarky response. "Look, Rayne, let's cut the crap just this once, alright? You know why I'm here, so let's just get down to it."

"And spoil my only bit of fun?" Ethan replied with a smirk.

After a few minutes of silently staring at each other, Lindsey sighed. "Fine, I'll just let Jason know that you didn't bother to do anything today." Turning away to head back up the stairs, he stopped when Ethan called out to him.

"Fine, you bloody spoil sport," Ethan said putting the bag on the desk. "Though I must say, expecting anything to change by asking me every day is a waste of time. It's not as if magic works faster if you give it a deadline."

"No, but the boss sure as hell thinks _you_ will."

Ethan smirked at him again. "If you knew what I knew about our employer…well, let's just say you might not be so quick to run to her."

"You know who we're working for?" Lindsey said cautiously trying to figure out who he was talking about. As far as he knew, no one knew anyone other than Jason, let alone some woman.

"Know? I met the _delightful_ woman."

"When the hell did you do that? I've been here since you got here and haven't left. Other than Faith and Jason, no one's been here."

"Oh, yes, of course. And you know everything, don't you?" Ethan said chuckling. "Do you really think I spend all of my time researching for what that lackey wants? I can do more with what was given to me than simply scry for signs of where the next Avatar might be, you know. Well, I suppose met is the wrong word. But I have seen her."

"And let me guess. You're just going to drop hints and cryptic remarks all over the place 'til I offer to let you go or something like that to get you to tell me? Not gonna happen," Lindsey said making sure to keep his face schooled.

"Oh, nothing so cliché," Ethan assured him. "I have no problem showing you."

Lindsey stayed where he was, watching as Ethan got a mirror and a few other supplies ready. "Why would you just show me, huh? What's in it for you?"

"Oh, Lindsey, why does it always have to be some kind of deal with you lawyers?" When Ethan turned around, supplies in hand, Lindsey fixed him with a hard glare. "Alright, fine. For starters, I'd like to have another pair of eyes out there, in case she happens to show herself here. Mine don't exactly work through walls. Well, not every wall."

"That all?"

"That…and I'd rather like to see the look on your face when you see her."

Walking over to the bed where Rayne had started laying out the materials, Lindsey couldn't help himself. He rationalized his decision to get within arm's reach of Ethan with the knowledge that, even injured, he could still take the man in a fight, especially with the gun in his waistband. Besides, Ethan was right about it being a good idea to have someone on the outside being able to recognize their employer. If anything went down or something fell apart, it would be good to have a face to point the gun at.

It only took a few minutes before Ethan was ready. It was amazing how quick some magics were. A lot of the heavy duty stuff required hours of chanting and sacrifices in order to work, while some of the sneakier spells were relatively simple. Given the choice, he'd pick the quick and dirty spells over the chanting. He'd been to only one ritual while at Wolfram and Hart, a few weeks after starting the Avatar Project, in fact. He didn't care what the cage was for just so long as he didn't have to be in it. Luckily, he had been excused halfway through it to meet with a man about finding Ethan. It had been a dead end, but he hadn't even been that upset at the time.

"Alright," Ethan said with a clap of his hands, "this shouldn't take long. It's the weekend, so she should be home or at least not at work."

"Wait, she has a job?" Lindsey asked surprised.

Ignoring him, Ethan sprinkled some white powder on the mirror. Instead of collecting on the glass, the powder hit and rippled like water. When it was done, the mirror no longer showed a reflection of Lindsey and Ethan, but of a kitchen table with coffee and papers spread on it. Lindsey was sure there were other things the image showed, but he ignored them all, focusing solely on the woman sitting at the table.

She was in her early thirties, long brown hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, and a pair of glasses perched on her nose. She was dressed in comfortable clothing, which seemed to soften her a bit. Though no matter how soft she may look, he knew different. Of course, she would probably be more at home in a power suit, but her clothing couldn't change who she was deep down inside. A nasty bitch with a heart so cold, it had probably stopped beating years ago.

"Lilah," Lindsey growled.

"Yes, Lilah Morgan," Ethan said with a grin. "If you come back at around seven o'clock, she usually takes a shower than."

"You're telling me _she's_ in charge of this whole thing?" Lindsey snarled, getting angry.

"Or close enough to it," Ethan said with an amused shrug. "It's not a hundred percent accurate and I can't 'see' her while she's in the Wolfram and Hart offices. They have too many protective spells for such a simple charm to get past. Not for someone like me, anyway."

Lindsey was trying hard to keep his emotions under control, most specifically his anger. Had Lilah wormed her way into heading up the project that he had worked so hard on, that he had sacrificed almost everything for? To see her walk in and get all the credit made his blood boil. If that bitch thought that she could get away with that, she had another thing coming.

He refused to show any of this of course, or at least did his best not to. He knew that he could no longer pull off the calm, cool demeanor that he had been able to exude when he was at Wolfram and Hart. Something had changed in him after being outside of the courtroom for so long, after being away from the sharks where anything less than complete confidence would be like blood in the water. In the real world, you couldn't show confidence without either being completely stoic or hard as stone. Of course, he could have also been a complete asshole and simply use force to show his worth, but that wasn't his way, not really. He had no problem throwing down, but only when it was on his terms. He sometimes wondered if he could ever go back to what he had been not so long ago, but he'd find that out _after _he got his job back.

"Yes, I thought you might react like that," Ethan said, clearly happy. "When I looked into you before making our little agreement, I made some inquires into Ms. Morgan, as well. I toyed with the idea of going to her instead, play you off of each other. You know, just for the fun of it."

Ending the conversation, Lindsey walked away from Ethan. He needed time to think about this without Ethan's remarks in his ear. When he was more leveled headed, he would talk to Ethan, but for now he needed to figure things out on his own.

"So what's the status with the Avatar? You know, the thing you're _supposed _to be doing?" Ethan said his voice heavy.

"What? You don't even care about her being the one pulling the strings?" Ethan asked.

"The Avatar, Rayne. What about it, and where are you with it?" Lindsey said ignoring him again.

Sighing, Ethan ran a hand through his hair. "Fine. Then, there's nothing new to report."

"You're kidding me," Lindsey said annoyed. "You've down here for how long doing nothing, but working on this and you've had nothing to show for it this whole time. You really think that's gonna fly? These people expect results and so far, you've been giving them nothing."

Shaking his head, Ethan looked back at him saying, "You know what our _employer_ has me doing, correct?"

"Yeah, you're supposed to be finding the next link in the chain, the next kid that's supposed to be the Avatar, should Harris die."

"Which is next to impossible since we don't know when that's going to be and please, can we skip your diatribe on how you could help us with that, I don't have the patience at the moment," Ethan said cutting off Lindsey before he could start, making him frown slightly.

"Get to the point."

"Why do you think Wolfram and Hart wanted him alive? I thought you were supposed to be smart?" Ethan sighed. "If Harris were to die on his own, it would be almost impossible for anyone to locate the next Avatar in the cycle, especially since we don't even know if there _will_ bea new Avatar. But, if we had Harris's body when he died, we could try to channel the spirit of the Avatar into a vessel of our choosing or, at the very least, track down the person it was reincarnated to."

Lindsey looked thoughtful for a moment as he took that in. He had wondered why the firm had wanted the kid alive. At the time he didn't care so, long as he got his job back, the job he had given up so that he could make Manners look good. It still burned him up inside that he hadn't been smarter about everything, that he hadn't looked for a different way to capture Harris, or that he had been dumb enough to trust Rayne, but, he couldn't change the past. All he could do now move forward, finish the damn job and get his life back.

If Rayne was right, then killing Harris, no matter how tempting and rewarding on a personal level it would be, was really a bad idea. Other than making him feel better, it wouldn't solve any of their problems and by that, he meant his own.

"So if we can't figure out who the hell the next Avatar is supposed to be, what the hell have you been doing down here?"

"I've been trying to find a way around that particular problem. Big surprise, there isn't one," Ethan said as if talking to a child. "Pinning down a potential Slayer is easy, but the Avatar doesn't have potentials. The next Avatar isn't born until the current one dies. I've tried looking into possibly finding potential pregnant women, but, again, we don't know when Harris is going to die."

Lindsey leaned against the wall, taking pressure off his leg, and tried to work something out. A part of this didn't make any sense. Wolfram and Hart didn't want Harris dead for good reasons, so they tried to knock him out and drag him away. Their new employer, Lilah possibly, didn't want Harris dead either, but instead of going in and grabbing him, they were jumping through hoops and working on convoluted schemes to get him.

He considered talking to Ethan about it, seeing what the man had to add but decided against it. There wasn't any reason to voice his thoughts - not yet, anyway. He didn't trust Rayne as far as he could throw the man, and that was with _two_ good legs. Add in this new information about Lilah, and it just meant too much information that could be used against him if he didn't play things right.

"What is it?" Ethan asked looking at Lindsey.

Luckily, the sound of something heavy breaking saved Lindsey from having to blatantly ignore Ethan or snap at the man.

"I don't know about you, but I'm more concerned with what _that_ was," Lindsey said eyeing the door for any sign of someone coming down to get them. The place was supposed to be guarded. By what, Lindsey didn't know and didn't ask. Still, that didn't mean they were perfect or that someone wouldn't be able to get past them. Several more crashes could be heard along with the several muffled, but heavy, thumping sounds.

Taking the gun out from behind his back, clicking the safety was off, Lindsey started for the stairs. Growling through the painful and slow process of making his way up to the door, his leg burning with each step, Lindsey made sure to keep the gun level with the door. It was a bit tough with his leg screaming at him and his one hand holding his cane, but it wouldn't do any good to get up the stairs just to be too damn slow to get his gun up.

"You know, I could be of some help," Ethan called up after him, pulling on the chain desperately. "You could just let me go for a bit."

"Quiet!" Lindsey hissed back.

Nothing happened when Lindsey made it upstairs, but the sounds became louder, more distinct. Once through the hallway and into the living room, Lindsey paused and peeked through the doorway, ducking his head back as a lamp broke against the wall. Taking another hesitant glance, he scrunched up his face in confusion. Still not dropping the gun, just in case, he took a tentative step into the room.

"Faith!" he yelled getting the girls attention. "What the hell are you doing?"

Faith spun on him, brandishing the leg of what had once been a coffee table like a club. Her hair was a wild tangled mess which matched the crazed look in her eyes. Her body had a few faded bruises which meant that, with her Slayer healing, she had either just been hit or had taken a serious beating the day before. The cuts and blood on her fist, on the other hand, were fresh. Her clothes seemed dirty, as if she had been rolling around on the ground for a good long while, which didn't help Lindsey piece together just what the hell had happened to push Faith over the edge like this.

"You mind putting the table leg down?" Lindsey said forcefully, but as calm as he could.

If Faith noticed the gun being pointed at her, she didn't show it. "We are screwed. We are so fuckin' screwed!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Lindsey asked keeping his voice calm, but tight, despite the situation.

"Yes, Faith," Jason said from the front door. "Why are we screwed?"

Lindsey blinked back his surprise. He hadn't heard the front door open or close, let alone notice Jason come into the room. Maybe it was the fact that all his attention was focused on the dark haired, and probably psychotic, Slayer and the destruction in front of him.

Faith couldn't have been up here long, but in that short amount of time, she had done serious damage to the living room. Several fist size holes were scattered among all four walls. From the glance he gave it, one of them looked as if she had hit a stud and broke it in half. And from the looks of it, the furniture hadn't fared much better.

The aforementioned coffee table had been broken into several pieces, the two largest being thrown against the far wall. The TV was upended, a floor lamp smashed through its screen. What was most impressive was the couch that had been thrown through the bay window. The blue couch that had been used as a bed many a night when Lindsey was too tired to make it to his own room had almost cleared the frame, too. A few more inches and it would have been completely on the lawn, instead of hanging on the window frame. Still, it was damn impressive.

Her chest heaving, Faith looked around wildly and Lindsey had to wonder for a second if she knew where she was at the moment. It took her a moment, but after blinking a few times and shaking her head slightly, she seemed slightly more together. The crazed look in her eyes wasn't gone exactly, but it appeared to be hidden now, just slightly.

"Faith," Jason said, his stoic appearance never wavering, "would you mind explaining to me what it is you're talking about?"

Despite Faith stiffly lowering her arms, Lindsey kept his gun trained on her.

"We are seriously fucked," Faith ground out.

"I heard that part," Jason told her. "Now, would you mind telling me why?"

"Because the guy you have us going after just leveled a park in seconds, that's why!"

That got Lindsey's attention and he felt the gun lowering a bit as Faith kept talking, despite himself.

"I was with him, ya know? Just like you told me, I was getting in good with him again. Everything was going fine when WHAM! We get attacked by that fucking vamped out version of Red."

"The vampire that was Willow Rosenberg I take it?"

"No, the other psychotic red-head vampire," Faith said nastily. "Of course, it was her! She came out of the fucking trees! Her and all these worked up vamps came after us. I'm not talkin' newbies here, nothing like that. They knew what they were fuckin' doin', they worked like a Goddamn machine. It was like they weren't even tryin' ta kill us, ya know?"

"Get to the point, Faith," Jason said as relaxed as if he were discussing the weather.

"The point? The point is that that fuckin' vamp grabbed Xander and bit into him."

Lindsey beat down the part of his brain that was getting excited. If Harris had been finished off, then Faith would have mentioned it already. Even in her state, she wouldn't have waited this long to give them that bit of news. Besides, if Harris was dead, then he could kiss his own life goodbye. The only thing keeping Wolfram and Hart off his back was his new employer, even if might be Lilah. Still, the thought of Harris bleeding out brought a dark smile to his lips.

"And what, exactly, were you doing at that time?" Jason asked.

"I was busy being held down trying not to die, thanks for caring," Faith ground out.

Her shoulders bunched, tensing, which was the only warning Lindsey got before the table leg in Faith hand snapped towards him, sending him backpedaling and falling on his ass. The leg missed hitting him directly, but left a gash on his arm holding the cane. Looking behind him, Lindsey was lucky that was all it did considering the leg was embedded in the wall on the opposite end of the hall from him. It didn't keep him from being pissed, though.

"You crazy son of a bitch!" Lindsey snarled bringing his gun up to bare.

"Lindsey, relax," Jason told him. "I'm sure Faith was just….tense. But she's going to be calm now, isn't she?"

Faith struggled for a moment, but finally relaxed, not that it made Lindsey feel any better. He still lowered the gun, but made sure to keep it handy. With his leg hurting too much from the fall, he stayed on the ground, glaring slightly at the Slayer, but otherwise keeping his cool.

"Sorry, sorry," Faith said putting her hands up, palms out. "I just…it was unreal. I've never seen anything like it, ya know? Right after the vamp starts to chow down, his eyes start glowing and this wind picks up, but only around him. It was creepy as all hell with his eyes like that.

"Red gets tossed through the air away from him. I mean, completely out of sight, over trees, tossed. The vamps holding me let go, but Xander didn't seem to care. He just…he turned towards us, his face was…twisted, kinda. Like he was angry, angrier than I think anyone has ever seen him. He lifted his hands like it was nothing and all of the air starts pulling towards him and started to drag us along with it. Before we get pulled along too far, he did something with his arms and all that air just…it came back at us.

"That's the last thing I remember before I woke up on Giles' couch. I checked out the scene before I came here…I had to know what happened. It was like the place got hit by a bomb. Things were just…flattened."

While Faith tried to get a hold of herself, Lindsey watched for Jason's reaction before he did anything.

The man was still something of a mystery and his cool almost unreal calm demeanor was a little freaky. When Jason wanted to make a statement, he raised an eyebrow which instantly shut any of them up. When he was really annoyed, he might even let out a deep sigh. Beyond that, he was like one of those damn British royal guards. Nothing they did had managed to break through his stoic exterior. Lindsey wondered if they would listen to him like they did, even with the freaky no emotion thing, if it weren't for the fact that he was the only connection to their current employer. None of them wanted to piss whoever that was off. There was far too much to lose if they did that, and no telling what else might happen to them.

Not surprisingly, Jason didn't even bat an eyelash. Reaching into his pocket, he said, "Faith, calm yourself down and bring the couch back inside. Lindsey, try to make sure she doesn't break anything else for the next few minutes, will you? I have a phone call to make."

As Jason disappeared up the stairs, Lindsey started the painful and undignified act of getting to his feet. His cane was near him from where he dropped it when he fell back, so at least he had something to prop himself up with which was helpful since he refused to put his gun down. Once to his feet, Lindsey gave Faith a once over. The girl hadn't moved from her spot, but she kept rubbing her fist in her hand, cracking her knuckles.

"He knows," she said quietly. "He fucking knows."

"He knows what?" Lindsey asked, with as much annoyance and resentment as possible. His arm was bleeding from the table leg and with the adrenaline from the ordeal fading, the cut was burning something fierce.

"He knows I'm after him. He fucking knows it."

"Harris? Like hell he does," he snapped. "The only thing he knows is that you couldn't hold your own against a couple of vampires. Mind reminding me just what the hell a _Vampire Slayer_ is supposed to do again?"

"Hey, fuck you! No one said anything about him being a fucking god!"

"News flash, Faith. He isn't a god!"

"What the hell do you call it, huh? The only reason he stopped trashing the place was because he passed out. If he had been up, he would've wrecked that place and me with it. You didn't see his eyes. It was like he was looking right through me."

"Come on, Faith. You're going to tell me that you think he knows what's going on because of some look he gave you? If you bothered to pay attention to what anyone else said or worked on you'd know that the Avatar can't read minds, just like no one can read his. There's too much noise, too much interference."

"And what about what he did? That's not normal. I've seen what he can do, he was never that strong. I don't know why we can't just kill him. Things would be a hell of a lot simpler."

Before Lindsey was able to respond, Jason came down the stairs tucking his phone into his pocket, as quiet as ever.

"Simpler? Yes, but that's not what any of us are being paid to do. The plan is still to contain and capture Harris with as little interference as possible, is that understood? Nothing has changed," Jason said to both of them. "And Faith, Lindsey is right. There isn't any chance of Harris knowing anything unless you told him."

"I didn't say shit to him."

"Then we have nothing to worry about." Talking to both of them again, Jason said, "Oh, one more thing. Under no circumstances are either of you to engage the vampire that was Rosenberg. Do everything you can to keep Harris alive and well and heading towards where we want him, but you are not to fight her."

"That's all well and good, but if that vampire is half as crazy as our intel says she is, I'm guessing she won't play nice just cause we say so," Lindsey said, wondering what Jason, or rather, what their boss was playing at.

"And if she comes after me, I'm supposed to let her bite me?" Faith shot.

"That won't be an issue," Jason told her. Cutting her off before she could fire back a response, he said, "I believe I told you to bring the couch back inside. I'd rather the neighbors didn't ask why it's suddenly through our window. Oh, and when you're done, get the hell out of here. They'll be searching for you since you ran. The last thing we need is for them to find this place with us in it. Don't let anyone but Harris find you. You'll have to come up with a story, so make it a good one. It'll work better if he finds you rather than anyone else."

Leaving no room for a response, Jason turned on his heel and went back upstairs to his room. He didn't have a bedroom in the house like the rest of them, just a work room. Since he would often times spend the night, there were times when Lindsey questioned if Jason ever slept. None of them could say for certain if the man was really one hundred percent human, not even Faith. Still, he was the man in charge, in a way. He was the voice of the boss, so his word was final so long as they wanted to keep working.

Once he was gone, Faith turned to Lindsey. "This is weird. I've never heard of anyone saying not to off a vamp that didn't have a soul. What the hell does that mean, _'That won't be an issue'_?"

Lindsey had wanted to agree with her, but he couldn't. Faith, unlike Ethan, was too much of a wild card. He could trust Ethan to do anything and everything to get free or to cut himself a better deal, it was just who he was. Anything said to him had to be done with that in mind. Faith, on the other hand, was just too damn unstable. There was no telling how anything he said would be taken or twisted around in her own head, and he was sure as hell not about to show uncertainty in front of her.

"It means stop worrying about it," Lindsey told her. Turning away, heading for his room where he could lay down and rest his leg for a bit, he added, "I'd help you with the bed, but, you know, bad leg and all."

As he laid down on his bed, after making sure his door was good and locked, Lindsey found it hard to keep his eyes open as the pain of just being on his leg lifted. The lack of pain, all on its own, was like a narcotic to him.

There were too many damn questions.

He didn't like the idea of working for Lilah, if he even was. Ethan never said that he was sure about that. It also bugged him not knowing what the end game was. He didn't enjoy blindly following orders. Add that to the fact that his "colleagues" left more than just a little something to be desired.

As he drifted off, riding the wave of pleasurable relief, Lindsey couldn't help but feel that this was going to end badly. The only question was, what was he going to do about it?


	13. Chapter 13

**_A/N:_** Let's keep this short and sweet. Thanks to Greywizard for all of his help with being my beta. Thanks also to those of you that have been keeping with this story and sorry that the update has been longer than usual. Hope you guys are still with me. Thanks again and on with the show.

Chapter 13

Peering out over the rooftop, Xander sighed in frustration. He had been combing the town for hours now looking for Faith, or at least a sign of where she might have gone. Now, here it was nearly sunset, without as much as a hint of her. He had flown as low as he could without bringing him any unwanted attention, but it hadn't done any good. Even being in the air he hadn't been able to find her. He had started in a tight circle and expanded outwards, hoping that by going in some kind of a pattern he would stand a better chance of getting her trail. Of course, that hadn't helped any. The next couple of hours after that were spent flying around haphazardly, landing only to search a few places or to rest for a few minutes. Now, leaning out over the edge, he wondered where else he might look.

He wasn't dumb enough to blame himself for Faith's running away or even for her getting hurt, not really. What happened last night with the vampires, with Evil Willow, it was out of his control. She ran on her own, of course, and he was extremely worried about why she did it, but it wasn't his fault that she did so.

What he did blame himself for was losing control.

He understood that, at some point, he would be able to control the Avatar State, but he wasn't near that level yet. He knew that he couldn't find fault in what happened after he entered into it, since it was out of his control at that point. It was all instinct. What he was his fault, though, was that he let himself get to that point, which ultimately led to him losing control. If he had focused more on helping Faith, instead of trying to get her away from the danger, she might not have been hurt. He had been cursing himself the entire time he had been searching for the Slayer, berating himself for holding back when he could do so much more. He had been so concerned over making sure that he didn't do anything too extreme, too "spectacular", in front of anyone that he had made the mistake of doing so even when it put people at risk. It was a stupid mistake on his part and he couldn't afford to make again.

The decision had been taken out of his hands anyway, it seemed. It would be hard to underplay his abilities now, when all the proof they needed could be seen at the park. He had seen the sight a few times when he was in the air, and it made his stomach sink knowing how many people could have been hurt. All anyone needed to do was look at that and they could tell he had been holding back. Granted, the Avatar State gave him far more power than he would have otherwise, but it wasn't as if he couldn't do some intense things without it. He may not be in a world where what he could do was normal, but he couldn't afford to hide or hold himself back anymore. Too much was at stake, too many people at risk. Hell, for all he knew, the world could hang in the balance and here he was, stopping himself from doing anything about it.

Slumping forward, chin resting on his folded arms, Xander continued to look out into the distance. Finding Faith was about as easy as finding a needle in a haystack. A needle that could move on its own accord and might have ran out of the haystack altogether, for all he knew. It wasn't as if he expected Faith to suddenly come into view, but he didn't have any more ideas about where to look, and running around certainly wasn't helping any. He hoped that Buffy had more luck than he did, or that Faith had gone back to the apartment, because at this point it seemed that was the only way he was going to find her.

"Hey," someone called out behind him.

Wishing that he wasn't such a spaz, or that he had calmer reflexes, seemed to be pointless. No matter what happened to him, he was still Xander. So, when he spun around and sent a blast of wind at the person behind him, he really shouldn't have expected more from himself. Also, since this was him, after all, he shouldn't have been surprised that the person who had gotten the jump on him was none other than Faith.

The air sent the dark haired Slayer flying back. The only luck was that she didn't end up going over the edge, though she hit the ledge hard. There was a loud popping noise when she hit and Faith collapsed on the floor, clutching her shoulder and cursing loudly.

"Faith! Crap, I'm sorry! I didn't know it was you, I just…crap! Are you OK?" Xander said in a panic, running over to see how badly she was hurt.

"Christ! What the fuck's wrong with you? You go around tossing everyone around, or am I special?" she yelled at him, grimacing as she tried to stand.

When Xander bent down to help, Faith pushed him away. Getting up on her own, in a not too graceful way, she inspected her arm. Wincing, she said, "I think I knocked it out, again. Shit."

"What? Again?"

"Easier to happen after the first time. Still hurts like a bitch, though." Faith fixed him with a glare before ordering him over to her. "Come here. I need you to hold me."

Xander knew what she meant this time, and saved himself the embarrassment of trying to hug her. It wasn't that he was opposed to the idea of having Faith close to him, but this wasn't the time or the place for that. At least, that's what the rational part of his brain told him. The hormonally charged teenage boy portion of his brain said something completely different, which would have probably earned him a slap in the face from most girls. Besides, he had more important things to talk to her about.

Grabbing her shoulders firmly, he said, "So…you ran."

"Yep," Faith replied, take a few deep breaths as she readied herself.

It was obvious that she wasn't going to explain any more on her own, so Xander started again. "OK, so any reason _why_ you ran?"

With a sudden jerk, Faith shoved her dislocated shoulder forward, popping it back into place with a disturbingly wet snap. Rolling her shoulder, Faith said, "I had to get out. I was laid up for too long, before. No way in hell I was going to let that happen again."

Wincing at the sound her arm made, Xander said, "So you decided that the best way to stay off the injured list was to run out when you were still healing? That makes…sense?"

Snorting, Faith rolled her eyes, but didn't move out of his arms. "Big bad Xander worried about me, huh?"

"Of course, I was worried," he replied, slightly annoyed at her dismissal of the idea.

"Well, don't be. I'm a big girl, X. Been taking care of myself for a while and I've got no plans on changing."

"It doesn't have to be that way, ya know."

With another snort, Faith shook her head. "You trying for the 'friend' route? That's a bit of a waste, don't you think?"

"Huh?"

"You don't have to try so hard, stud," Faith said lifting her arms and tracing circles on his chest with her fingers. "'Cause, ya know, last time you and me were like this, it didn't exactly suck."

Xander froze, not trusting what his own body might do if he moved a muscle. Here was Faith who, albeit, was injured and shifting the conversation away from something important, was also female. A female, in fact, that he had already known in a very biblical sense and, just like she said, the last time they had been like this, he had very fond memories that he revisited often. Usually those times were reserved for late at night when he was alone in his room, but he couldn't say the thought hadn't crossed his mind a few hundred times.

But, there was something wrong about it. The way she was acting, the way it came out of nowhere, it was wrong. Well, that wasn't exactly true. The last time she had been very abrupt in a 'take me' kind of way. Or rather, 'I'm taking you and no, you don't have a say in it,' if he was honest with himself, not that he'd complained at the time. So, yes, Faith was all about the abrupt switches in moods. Still, this time it felt different.

Moving his arms, Xander gently put his hands on Faiths arms, stopping her. "Faith, wait. Just, stop for a minute. I-"

Stopping him short, Faith pushed him away with more than a bit of Slayer strength, both surprising the teen and sending him stumbling backwards. "So, what? I'm not good enough for you, anymore?"

"What? No! That's not it at all!" Xander exclaimed, steadying himself with his staff. "I would have to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to want you."

"So what's the problem, huh?" Faith said, her mood shifting again into a combination of anger and sexuality.

It was an odd mix and gave the appearance of a predator stalking its prey, only it hadn't come to a decision as to what to do with it yet. The next few words had to be just right, Xander realized. If he said the wrong thing, he wouldn't put it past Faith to go into 'Use Xander as a punching bag' mode. At times like this, he really wished that he was somebody else, somebody that didn't have such an extensive history of saying the wrong thing. Somebody like…like Iroh!

He had only a basic knowledge of the man from Aang, who had met him only a handful of times, but Zuko had spoken of him often enough that he knew the man had a way with words and with advice. Xander wracked his brain trying to think of what the wise old man would say at a time like this. What he came up with, while not by any means Iroh-esque, Xander figured was still better than anything he would normally say.

_Faith, you're a beautiful woman and I would be lucky to have you, but not like this. You're injured, for one thing. Not to mention that after what you saw last night, you must be very confused. There are a lot of reasons that I could give besides those, but the most important reason is that I would like it to mean more than just something fun and fleeting. I would like to be a part of your life, as a friend, at first. If something were to grow from that, I wouldn't back away from it. But, it's more important to me to be your friend._

When Xander finished, he looked into Faith's eyes, hoping to see that he had gotten through to her what he wanted to say without offending her. He counted it as a positive that she no longer looked at him with a violent gleam, but it probably wasn't good that she looked confused. Her face was scrunched up and her mouth was open slightly. Her arms had dropped to her sides and were no longer as tense as they had been before.

"Um…did I speak too fast? I tried not to blurt it all out and mess it up," Xander said sheepishly.

"Was I supposed to understand that? 'Cause I don't speak whatever the hell that was," Faith said with a bit of annoyance.

Closing his eyes and lowering his head, Xander muttered a curse to the spirits for his accidental slip into non-English. It would be when he had carefully thought out each and every word that it would happen.

"Look, let me try again," Xander asked. Not waiting for a response, he said, "I want to be your friend, Faith. I haven't been a very good one, especially since that night you and I, uh…you know."

"Fucked?"

Coughing and trying not to blush, Xander said, "Yeah, that. I kind of got wrapped up in all of this…well, this!" He waved his around, indicating himself.

"Yeah, I noticed," Faith said, not giving him an inch.

"But, I don't want that to be the case - not anymore. You've had it hard and I know you can take care of yourself, but I don't want you to have to _be _alone. That make any sense?"

Faith hesitated for a moment. Her body tensed again before relaxing a bit and leaned against the ledge. She didn't look happy, or angry even. She looked a bit confused still, but also like she was trying to work something out. He didn't interrupt her. He was still a little afraid that he might say something wrong and set her over the edge again. She was probably still tired and healing, a combination which made for a very irritable Slayer, in his opinion.

Finally, she looked at him, her eyes searching. She had crossed her arms, but instead of looking tough, it looked more like she was trying to hug herself. It was a vulnerable Faith that Xander looked at now and part of him wanted to do nothing more than to reach out and hold her. But, that wasn't his call at the moment. She would reject him flat out if he did something like that and he would lose his chance with her. Being strong was important to Faith; Xander knew that, and didn't want to do anything that she would think took away from her strength.

"So…what do you mean by being my friend?" she asked warily. "I get the no sex part," she added with a role of her eyes. "I mean what else is there, ya know?"

"You have other friends, right? It's not like you and Buffy have sex when you're not Slaying…" Xander's eyes glazed over for a moment as his brain supplied him with that particular image. Shaking his head, but filing that thought away for some other time, Xander went on. "OK, well, we…hang. We talk, we do things for each other. You know, friends stuff."

Taking a look at the arm she had dislocated, Xander's face split into a grin. "Speaking of doing things for each other, I can help with that."

"What? My arm? It's fine now."

"Faith, it's back in place, but it probably still hurts like hell, even with your healing. I can make it almost like new. Or at least, fix it up a bit faster for ya."

"Oh? How's that?" she asked skeptically.

"I just need some water," Xander told her distractedly as he looked around, expecting to find a source of water nearby. "It won't take long. Well, I don't think it will, anyway. I'm kind of new at it, just found out today that I could do it."

"Do what?" Faith moved off the ledge but didn't get any closer. "You talking about something to do with that whole…bending thing of yours?"

"Yeah! It's actually pretty cool," Xander replied happily, missing Faith's change in tone. "I healed up my neck in a few seconds, back home. Granted, I had some help with the doc's doing most of the work, but the point is, I can do it."

"X, just…wait, alright," she said putting up a hand to stop him. "Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it and all, but…don't."

"What? Why not?"

"You don't find it a little freaky what you can do? It's handy in a fight, I'll give you that. But that doesn't make it any more normal. You wiped out a freaking park last night and here you are, good as new 'cause you healed yourself with some magic water? It's just a bit…much."

Xander's face fell a bit as he listened. He knew that people thought it strange what he could do; he just didn't think they were actually afraid of him. He was concerned that this was the case, especially now, but this was someone who was actually saying as much to him. Did the others feel the same way but just couldn't bring themselves to mention it to him? If Faith really was this freaked out by what he could do, it would explain why she had been so distant around him, so different. You know, besides the whole sleeping together thing.

"You said you wanted to be friends, right?" Faith asked. "Well, if so, I want to start it off right between us. I've got a zero bullshit level as is, ya know? Last thing we needed was this hanging over us.

"And I'm not saying not to use it in a fight, that would be just plain stupid. But outside of that…maybe you might want to back off a bit. Stop moving air around to cool off your food, or moving water into a glass instead of getting up. You're still human, right?"

Despite himself, Xander let a small smile slip onto his face, masking the hurt. "Sure, makes sense. No real point in making people uncomfortable if I don't have to, right?"

"Exactly!" Faith said happily. "Besides, won't it feel good to get back to doing things like normal people? Fighting vamps with a stake, instead of with air and water?"

"Sounds good," he said, forcing the smile even more.

Faith was, after all, the most forward person in their group. If it had taken her this long and this big of an event to have her tell him the truth, what did that mean for everyone else? It couldn't hurt to pretend to be more normal than he really was, could it? Maybe, after a while, he could ease them into it, let them all get used to what he could do at a slower pace. It couldn't be easy for them to suddenly have something like this thrust on them, he imagined. After all, he knew more than they did and it still kind of weirded him out at times.

He didn't like it. It made something inside of him feel hollow at the thought of hiding himself. Xander was already doing it to some degree, though he hadn't even realized that he had started using his bending abilities in such a common way. But, these weren't super powers or magic - not to him. Bending was an extension of the person and using it in daily life wasn't an abuse of it, it was simply how things were done. Earthbenders used their talents to construct houses in a lot of cases, even! But, they didn't know about that, here. They didn't know how natural it was for a bender to use their abilities in everyday life.

Without giving away any of his thoughts, Xander kept his smile up the rest of the time he and Faith were together. As the climbed off the roof and made their way back to the apartment, he made sure it was still there. After a while, he didn't even feel his cheeks hurt anymore.

* * *

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Buffy apologized as she pulled out a chair. "I tried to hurry, but it's just…this day has just been…I'm sorry."

"It's alright," Angel said giving her a soft smile. "I got you your coffee. I don't know if it's still hot, though."

Sighing, Buffy settled into her chair, smiling back at him. Angel was always cute when he tried to do something nice only to have it fail a bit. He was the same way when he got annoyed with anything he didn't understand, especially newer technology. Still, it was one of those things made her smile, something that let her know that he was comfortable around her. This was one of the sides of his personality that he didn't show the others, the more human side of himself.

"I'm sure it's fine," Buffy assured him taking the cup closest to her. After a small sip, she made a face. "Maybe not."

Chuckling slightly, Angel got up. "I'll get you another cup, be right back," he told her, taking her cold coffee away.

Once he was away, Buffy groaned and let her head fall to the table with a heavy thud. This was supposed to a nice, simple, semi-normal date at the Espresso Pump with Angel. Despite what some people thought, not all of their dates involved slaying or dismembering a demon. But here she was, ruining it from the very beginning.

It wasn't as if Buffy had planned for everything between Xander and Faith to go down today, it had just happened. She had spent all of the day searching for the other Slayer, only to go back to Giles' apartment to find her there with Giles and Xander, talking as if nothing had happened. Well, that wasn't true, but it sure as hell felt that way. It was slightly annoying to walk in on that without so much as an explanation as for why she took off the way she did. Buffy had been about to ask her that very thing when Giles caught her eye and, with a small shake of his head quickly, shut her up. It was a good thing that they were able to convey some of those things without words, otherwise she would have been angry over his wanting her to be quiet on the subject. She could only guess that there was something to the story that she wasn't aware from and he didn't want to talk about it in front of Faith.

Buffy hadn't stayed long after that, but made sure that Faith was in the right state of mind to be left alone with Xander and Giles. She hadn't said it to anyone, but she had overheard Wesley and Giles talking before going off in search of Faith. It was hard to make out, but her Slayer enhanced hearing had her picking up bits and pieces of the conversation – not a lot, but enough to make her concerned. Buffy had thought that the way Faith fought was a little reckless, but she didn't think it was a big problem.

Granted, she was wild when it came to Slaying and didn't play things smart at all. Buffy had always thought that she was still working out what had happened to her first Watcher and Kakistos. If it was more than that, if it was something wrong with her like it seemed Wesley was suggesting, then she wanted to keep an eye on her sister Slayer. The more Buffy thought about it, the more it made sense, though. Faith hadn't really calmed down at all since dealing with Kakistos; in fact, if anything, she had become slightly worse. The way she jumped after those cult vampires the other month, the way she pretty much went after everything they fought, not to mention how she treated her body…Buffy wasn't about to condemn anyone for how they chose to live their life, but the way Faith went through men and drank had concerned her a bit even before she'd overheard the Watcher's conversation, but then, when you added it in with everything else, it painted a very bad picture.

Angel came back, breaking her from her thoughts.

"Here you go. This should be a bit better," Angel said setting the whipped topped coffee drink in front of her.

"Thanks," she said trying her best to sound normal. She'd be damned if she couldn't get at least a few hours with her boyfriend in today without anything getting in the way.

"Everything alright?" Angel asked.

"Yeah, why? Do I look like I'm not OK?"

"Um…it was mostly seeing you hit your head on the table while I was in line," he told her. "Look, if you're not in the mood for this right now, we can do it another time."

"No!" she told him, with more force than intended. Blushing slightly at her outburst and the few people giving her weird looks, she repeated herself more calmly. "No, really. I want to be here with you. It's just…between last night with Xander, and today with Faith, it's just been a bit much."

Frowning slightly, Angel leaned forward slightly. "What happened? Is everyone alright?"

Buffy took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "As far as I can tell, yeah. I mean, Xander was in pretty bad shape for a while, but he's alright now. I mean, he's a bit weak, but after what he did back at the park last night, I would expect him to be. Then, with Faith freaking out and-"

"Wait, the park?" Angel said shocked. "That was Xander?"

"Yeah, that was him," Buffy told him. "You saw the damage, huh?"

"No, I haven't had the chance to, and without knowing what did it, I didn't want to take the chance." Angel looked around for a moment before leaning in even more, speaking lower, but with more intensity. "Buffy, everyone's talking about the park. Every demon, vampire, and creature in this town is speculating over it. Some are saying it's an omen, while others are swearing they saw the whole thing happening and that it was some kind of divine being who did it. No one really has any hard proof, but everyone's on edge about it. You're saying _Xander_ did it?"

Eyes wide slightly, Buffy nodded her head. "I saw it happen. Well, more like felt it. I got hit by it towards the end. It was…it was pretty scary, actually, when I stop to think about it. I've never seen anything like it. It was like a force of nature. But, when I ran towards the center of it all, there was Xander."

Buffy explained about everything that had happened between last night and now. Angel listened intently, nodding his head once in a while. She even told him about what she had overheard Wesley telling Giles about Faith's reaction when she had first woken up. When she finished, she found that she felt a bit better. She wasn't nearly as tense or worked up as she had been when she had first got there.

"I mean, it's not as if I think Faith is going to go totally psycho and kill everyone or anything, I just would rather be safe, ya know? Maybe it's nothing, maybe I'm just being all wigged 'cause of last night." Sighing, Buffy chuckled, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. This was supposed to be our night off, away from the usual stuff."

"You have to watch her, Buffy," Angel said. His face was very serious and his eyes held something akin to nervousness in them as he spoke. "She's unstable and there's no telling what she may do."

"What?" Buffy said slightly surprised. She had thought her suspicions, while not farfetched, weren't exactly well founded, either.

"I'm not saying that I'm certain, but I've seen this kind of behavior before. She's reckless and if what you overheard is right, she may be slipping.

"I could be wrong," he said quickly, "But if a Slayer were to suddenly lose her mind…"

Buffy thought about it for a moment and realized that something like that was the last thing they needed to happen. "If she is slipping, if there's really something wrong with her, could we do something about it?"

Frowning slightly, Angel shrugged. "There are ways, depending on what's wrong and how far gone she is, but it's not impossible."

Closing her eyes, Buffy let out a frustrated moan. "This is _so _not what we needed right now. Isn't there enough going on without having to worry about Faith maybe being crazy as well?"

"Um, I guess this is a bad time to bring up what my contacts found out," Angel said awkwardly.

Opening her eyes enough to give him a halfhearted glare, Buffy sighed. "Well, this night's already ruined, so why not?"

"Hey, the night isn't ruined," Angel said, putting his hand on hers reassuringly. "Buffy, most of our dates usually end with killing vampires or decapitating one kind of demon or another. As long as I'm with you, it's fine."

"That's sweet," Buffy told him with a smile. "It's sweet and completely not the point. I would like to have just one night, just one, where I didn't have to talk about Slaying or demons or some kind of other worldly thing or another. Just…nice, normal, couple-y things. It'd be nice to answer 'How was your day?' without having to bring up ritual murders."

"You don't think I'd like to take you out somewhere without worrying about when the sunsets or if I'll get too worked up?"

Giving his hand a squeeze, she said, "I know. It's hard for both of us, but that doesn't make me not want a bit of normal every once in a while."

"I want it, too. But, we take what we can get."

Neither of them spoke the unanswerable question. Was what they could get enough for them? For now, it was, but as the days grew into months grew into years, who knew? They could never be fully intimate with each other, not without Angel losing his soul and releasing Angelus on the world again. It had happened once already and the end result had been a pile of bodies, Angel being sent to hell, and Buffy running away. It wasn't something either of them wanted to revisit. But part of being with someone, being in a relationship with someone, meant being able to be with them physically as well as emotionally.

With another squeeze, Buffy let go of his hand and became more businesslike. "Alright, so, let's hear it. What did your contacts have to say? Any of them know where or what Vampire Willow is up to?"

Shaking his head, Angel said, "None of them. A few said they know a guy who knows a demon who might know, but none of the leads panned out. If she's up to something, she's keeping it quiet. She's recruiting, but the only reason we know that is because certain vampires have gone missing from their normal groups. They might have been staked or just taken off and left town, but after what you said happened last night, it's kind of hard not to think she's getting a small force together."

"But no one knows why? Well, that's helpful," Buffy said with a roll of her eyes.

"That's not all I found out, though," Angel said darkly. "We've all suspected that someone or something has been filling the void that the Mayor left when he died."

"We still don't know who did that, you know," Buffy interrupted.

Ignoring her statement, Angel went on. "From everyone that I've talked to, we weren't wrong. Someone has been keeping everyone in line. Just like with Vamp Willow, though, no one has any real concrete information. Either they're working for them or they weren't important enough to get a personal visit. One thing's clear though - no one is willing to cross whoever it is behind all this. Vampires especially seem to be frightened of them. All I can get out of anyone is that it's just one person. Even with some more…forceful tactics, no one is saying much of anything."

Groaning again, Buffy felt like closing her eyes and going to sleep till this was all over. "So, let me get this straight. Not only does no one have any real info on Vamp Willow's whereabouts, but she's on some recruiting campaign, and there's also someone else out there who's taking over where the Mayor left off that we know even less about."

"Don't forget Faith," Angel told her. "She still needs to be watched. When all of this comes to a head, we can't afford to have Faith lose control."

"Any chance Vamp Willow and this other mystery person are the same person or, um, ya know, vampire? 'Cause you know that would make things really easy. Two problems solved with one slay."

"I wish it was that simple," Angel said apologetically. "Whoever started bringing the vampire and demons in line started before Vampire Willow ever made it here. They're two separate people, Buffy, with two different agendas."

"Go ahead, ruin all my fantasies why don't you," Buffy grumbled.

Buffy's mind was a flurry of thoughts. There was so much going on at the moment that it almost seemed impossible to deal with. They needed a plan, a plan and a lot of luck. Dealing with Vampire Willow was going to be hard considering she didn't seem to be as stupid as she was crazy. She was clearly missing a few screws, but she was also as smart as their Willow was, which only made her that much more dangerous. She also didn't seem to want to destroy the world or take over the town or raise hell - she just wanted to make Xander like her. It wasn't any better - in fact, it was worse in a lot of ways - but it also made her easier to predict.

This new person, whoever they were, didn't give them anything like that to go on. They needed more information which, judging by Angel, was going to be hard to come by just by asking around. For all they knew, they could just want to be the next king of the hill and not have any real ulterior motives. It was unlikely, but she could at least hope that it was the case.

"Ever have those days when you know you just shouldn't have gotten out of bed in the morning?" Buffy asked grumpily?

With a sympathetic look, Angel replied, "Yeah, I might have had one or two of those."

"Next time, I swear, no shop talk when we go out. I just…I just wanted a few hours of just you and me, that's all!"

They sat in silence for a moment, both depressed at the evening being ruined, but for different reasons.

Looking at her questioningly, Angel asked, "Want to go kill something?"

Despite herself, part of Buffy roared with joy at the idea of taking her frustration out on some demonic being. It wasn't just the part of her that was the Slayer, but also the human part that wanted to vent, and at the moment, words weren't enough to do that.

Taking a sip of her now lukewarm coffee, which was better than the ice cold coffee from before, Buffy gave him an amused half smile. "You always know the way to a girl's heart."

"You make it easy," he told her, returning her smile.

Getting up, the two of them started to leave the main street and head towards one of the many cemeteries. It may have been odd to other people, but as Angel took her hand in hers, Buffy couldn't help but smile. Here she was, on a date with her almost two hundred and fifty year old vampire boyfriend, off to hunt and take down either vampires or demons and she was smiling. Sure, there was a lot to be worried about, but she was taking this moment as her own.

Thinking back to the coffee back at the Espresso Pump, Buffy couldn't help but wonder if "normal" was a bit overrated.

* * *

Consciousness came slowly.

Her senses were blurry at first and the information that was transmitted to her brain was confusing. Her hearing was fuzzy, dulled, and something was pressing against her from all sides, forcing her to stay where she was, as moving was hard at the moment. She forced herself to remain still, to wait till she was able to gain full awareness before trying to move. At the moment, there was no telling where she was, what time of day or night it was, or if there was anyone or anything waiting to pounce the second she tried to escape from whatever confines she was in. In other words, it was going to be extremely boring for the time being.

_'Well, this is just _perfect_,'_ Vampire Willow thought sarcastically, rolling her eyes. The move only made dirt fall past her eyelids, even though they had only moved slightly.

Dirt? Was she buried? She hadn't been buried even when she was turned. She had woken to her new life on the same bed that Xander had kept her chained to as he played before turning her. Of course, the chains had been removed and she had a nice fresh body next to her, all tied up and thrashing about, reeking of fear. It was the second gift he gave her that night and she tore into it with wild abandon. It was the most delicious thing she had ever tasted at that point, the blood going well beyond what any other food had ever done for her.

Frowning, the memory only served to make her aware of just how hungry she was. She felt as if she hadn't fed for days, as if something had taxed her to near starvation. Willow knew that she wasn't always right in the head and that without blood she would get worse, become reckless. She was nowhere near as bad as Drusilla, though. When Spike and his insane girlfriend came to Sunnydale, she had at first been enthralled with them, Xander as well. They each had their fun, but Drusilla was almost too crazy at times, making it far more trouble than it was worth to put up with the pair. Though, she did learn a few things from the seer, such as concentrating past the delusions and crazed thoughts hunger could bring on a vampire.

Quickly, she began trying to find something for her mind to focus on.

The dirt! Yes, the dirt in her eyes. It had triggered something in her, a clue of some sort. She was buried. She had to be, but why? Why wasn't she lounging around in one of the backrooms of the Bronze or laying amidst a pile of corpses or bleeding and broken bodies? Why, instead of being held in Xander's arms, was she encased in dirt? Was this a new game? Oh! Was it her birthday and Xander wanted to give her a proper awakening? Maybe there was someone waiting for her when she got out, just like the first time!

No, wait. That was wrong. She wasn't there anymore, she was…elsewhere. She was in the _other_ place. The boring place where nothing was right anymore. Where Xander wasn't her sire and she was still human.

Yes, that was it. She was human! Wait, what? That wasn't right. No, no she wasn't human. The _other_ her was human. She was still very much a vampire, thank you very much.

So, why was she here then, buried for who knew how long or how far down?

Xander! Right, Xander was here. He was human, too, unfortunately. Wait, it wasn't that unfortunate. She still wanted him. Wait, why did she want him? He was human now, he wasn't her Xander. He helped the Slayer, he hunted their kind. He was a White Hat. Why did she want something as weak and fragile as….oh. Oh, yes, that was right. He wasn't weak, he was strong. He was…different here. He could do things that her old Xander could never dream of, though that Xander did have a very active imagination.

So, did Xander put her here? Was that what happened?

He wouldn't kill her, he was lacking that killer instinct, which suited her just fine for the time being. Besides, he wasn't really lacking it, not really. He was hiding it, keeping it under wraps. Power practically radiated from him now, but he wouldn't use it. He thought it made him strong. She'd show him how strong he could be. He just needed a little…push.

Yes, that's right. Xander needed guidance, just like she did before and after he turned her. She had needed to be shown just what he was when he was a vampire. All the wicked, dark, sadistic, wonderful parts of him that he no longer had to hide anymore. And, after she rose and fed that first time, she understood him better than ever before. Now, she wanted to do the same for him. Show him what she could do, what _he_ could do.

So she had planned. It wasn't hard to get whatever information she needed here, that was easy. What had been harder was finding the right kind of muscle that was willing to do the job. Willow remembered trying the demon bar with the oily little weasel of a man behind the bar. It had taken time, but she had found what she wanted. Vampires who were smart enough not to go into a fight based only on their instincts, who worked like she wanted, but were dumb enough not to realize that they were merely the bait. If everything had gone to plan, they would have been dead, this time for good.

But it hadn't. No, things had gone wrong. They had gone wrong, but in the right way. While Xander hadn't acted like she had hoped, she wasn't about to let a good opportunity go to waste. He was tired and oh so helpless on the ground and when she bite him…

The taste of his blood flooded her senses, even though memory. It had been amazing, different, _powerful_. She felt like she could take on the world and burn it to ash without breaking sweat.

Then the feeling was gone. There was pain, and weightlessness for a bit and then more pain. Then there was nothing for a bit, something that bothered her. She hated not remembering something. But, then Willow remembered more pain. It hurt, the sun was up, but she wasn't on fire. Why didn't she burn up? Direct sunlight wasn't something a vampire suddenly got over, no matter what she might have told some of the fledglings –well, until the Master told her to stop thinning the herd. Was it Xander's blood? Could that have done it? Did his blood keep the sun from destroying her? Yes, that must be it! She tried to move her hand when a thought occurred to her.

Dirt. Right, not his blood. She had buried herself. That wasn't nearly as much fun as what she had just been thinking.

At least she was thinking clearly, that was important. She needed to stay sane enough to dig herself out of her shallow grave and find someone to eat. A hungry Willow, living or dead, was a cranky and sloppy Willow. The good thing was that she could feel that the sun had set and she had several hours before it would rise again. It seemed her senses were coming back to her. That was something.

She could hear the crickets above her, the worms burrowing around her. But, most of all, she heard heartbeats. Two, to be exact.

The sound was distant and slightly muffled because of the dirt, but there was no mistaking it. Not when she was this hungry. The two hearts coming ever closer. With each beat of their hearts, she felt her own veins pumping in time, purely in her own head, of course. Her veins had long since stopped working, something that still bothered her. Not because she missed it, but she knew for a fact that certain functions her body still performed required blood to pump. So how in the world did her body work now that she was dead? It was maddening! But that was off topic.

In almost no time, they were practically above her. They had stopped, and she knew they were talking, but the heartbeats made it hard to concentrate on anything other than that. Images of ripping the throats out of whoever had the dumb luck to be here filled her head. When she couldn't stop herself anymore, she used as much force as she could muster to launch herself out of her hand dug grave.

It was supposed to be simple. Jump out, scare the two humans, and then drain them both.

So why was it that she suddenly found herself on the ground with someone's arm around her neck and a knee planted on her back digging into her spine?

"You got her?" Someone asked, a woman by the sound of it, her voice tinged with annoyance.

There was no response and Willow wasn't about to struggle, not yet anyway.

Looking forward, Willow saw a pair of what looked like expensive grey heels, not that she could really tell. Even when dead, she had never really followed fashion that much. Even when Darla had been around, trying to convince her to pay attention to what her victims were wearing, if only to get something good after the meal, she had always ignored it. But, she knew enough to know that those heels screamed money.

The heels gave way to a pair of bare legs that lead up to a dark grey skirt that ended just below the knees and a matching jacket on top. The woman in the suit was, as far as Willow could tell from her vantage point, attractive. Her long brown hair was pulled back with a clip letting her see the startled look in her eyes. The expression on her face, which was probably due to her own sudden appearance, Willow guessed, made her look all that more attractive, more desirable to her. She might just have to keep this one alive for a bit.

The woman in the skirt straightened herself out, recovering quickly. "Hi, Lilah Morgan," she said confidently. "You'll understand if I don't shake your hand.

"I have to admit, you weren't someone that I planned on having to meet with. We assumed that one of the Slayers would have taken care of you already, to be honest. But, here we are. So, um, Willow, is it? Let me start off by saying that I think we can be very…beneficial to each other."

"Gonna offer me your pet here as an appetizer before I start on you? Goodie," Vampire Willow snarled, testing the strength of the man who held her by struggling a bit. His grip was like steel, but that meant nothing.

Ignoring her, Lilah continued. "You see, your obsession with Alexander Harris is getting in the way of our own plans for him. Now, we could simply stake you, cut your head off, or leave you out in the sun, but then we got to thinking. I mean, why waste all that potential?

"Like I said, we _could_ do any number of things to end your life, and hey, who says we won't, right? But, we would rather use this as an opportunity, wouldn't you?"

"Opportunity?" Willow asked with a dark smile. "Yeah. I'd say this would be the perfect opportunity."

The tone of voice was the only warning Lilah got.

One of the first things Willow had learned after being made a vampire in a clan ruled by the Master was that you didn't stay a vampire for very long unless you had something to offer. Xander was allowed to stay because of his vicious, ruthless nature and a complete willingness to do anything, so long as it hurt others. Keeping the Master in power meant he could continue to torture his undead heart out and, thus, would do anything needed to keep the Master alive. Darla was old, strong, and the Master's favorite. She had been his second in command for ages, even when she was out of town doing whatever the Master needed. Even the "muscle" had to be of a certain type or else the Master would have them taken out after a short time. There was no room for dead weight in his clan, Xander would joke, generally to whoever he was torturing at that moment.

But, Willow wasn't the average foot soldier, and while she was smart, she didn't have the knowledge that would be useful to the Master. She wasn't particularly sadistic, not until Xander had taught her how to better put her brain to good use. In truth, there wasn't anything that would have made her stick out from anyone else, really, and she would have been staked within a month had she been that way. But, she had one thing that made her different, that made her special. Something that the Master had noticed about her, had smelled on her, from the moment Xander had dragged her human body through the Bronze. Simply put, she was magical.

Drawing in her will, as well as energy from the land around her, Willow formed a simple little spell that she had used several times before when playing the helpless vampire when a group of White Hats thought they had her surrounded.

The air rippled around her, sending the man holding her flying off. Without his weight on her, Willow stood up in one smooth motion. When she looked at Lilah, she was in full vampire visage, only instead of yellow tinged eyes hers were the color of onyx.

"Magic," Lilah said with a curse under her breath, trying to keep her composure. "What's the point of having psychics if they can never tell you anything useful?"

Shaking off the dirt as she went, Willow rushed towards Lilah, fangs bared, her hands clawed. She was ready to rip the woman's face off, maybe tear out her eyes and leave her there while she finished off Lilah's companion. The idea of having the fine dressed woman rolling on the floor, unable to do anything or go anywhere excited Willow. She might just watch her for a while before she started in on the really fun things. She could practically taste her blood at this point.

Then, just a couple of feet away from her kill, she was tackled to the ground once more.

This time, Willow fought back instead of lying in wait, but it didn't seem to make a difference. She was too weak from lack of blood, and to pull off another spell would take too much energy and time. Besides, whoever this man was, he certainly wasn't human, despite what he smelled like. Other than his clothing being torn, he appeared unscathed from her attack. At that close a range to the spell, he should at least be deeply bruised, if not lying on the ground with crushed organs and internal bleeding. He was also strong, far stronger than herself even at full strength. In moments, he had her arms pinned behind her back, her wrists in one hand while his other was holding tightly to the back of her neck, keeping her from moving.

"Sorry about that, Ms. Morgan. I wasn't aware of her mystical abilities. I'll take that into account from now on," the man said, his voice sounding as if he was almost bored with the situation.

"It's fine, Jason," Lilah told him, though her face said otherwise. She waited and calmed herself down a bit before speaking again. "Magic, hmm? That works even better than we could hope for, actually. We know that this world's Willow has some talent, but we had no idea that you had any."

Lilah and Willow watched each other for a moment, each sizing the other up. There were no words exchanged, no threats right now. No, it was a simple matter of taking the measure of the other woman, seeing where they stood.

Smiling in what some might mistake for a warm manner, Lilah broke the silence first, continuing as if nothing had happened. "You want Harris dead. We want him dead, only not just yet. See, we both want the same thing in the end. Now, wouldn't it make more sense for us to work together rather than have my friend over there pop your head off like a Champaign cork?"

Willow considered her options, which was really limited to either get killed now, or hear what she has to say, and then kill them later. She had no intention of following through on whatever offer this woman made to her. She had her own plans and no one would stop her. But she couldn't do anything she wanted to do if she was a pile of dust. Though apparently, she wasn't thinking quite fast enough.

Dropping the smile, Lilah said in annoyance, "Alright, screw this. I don't need this kind of aggravation. Jason, take care of it."

"Wait!" Willow called out, growling slightly.

Lilah held up a finger, stopping the near decapitation. "Yes? Something you wanted to say?"

Growling a little more, Willow asked, "What do you want?"

"Nothing you can't handle," Lilah assured her, becoming business like again, all smooth and calm on the outside. "You can still kill, torture, and maim pretty much anyone you want. Everyone, that is, except for Harris and his friends."

"Where's the fun in that?"

"I believe the fun is in not having your head ripped off," Lilah reminded her. "Well, that and when _we're_ ready, you can go to town on them for all we care. Bleed them dry, snap their necks, grind their bones into dust. Really, it doesn't matter just so long as they're dead. But until then, they're off limits. In return, you get Harris when we want him dead."

Eyeing the woman carefully, Willow asked, "What do you want Xander for?"

"Does it matter?" Lilah snapped. "This is the deal. Take it, or die. Really, I'm not that picky at this point."

"I get Xander?" she asked after another moment, again paying no attention to the position that she was in.

"Yes," Lilah snapped again. "You get the kid after we're done with him. But _only_ if you play by our rules. You step out of line and we'll tear you apart, one piece at a time."

Nodding her head, as much as she could anyway, Willow agreed. She knew she wouldn't really hold to it, not if there was something else she could. But she was a little intrigued by all of this. More people knew who Xander was and what he could do and wanted him as well. This was…interesting, to say the least. Besides, there was something about this woman that was bothering her. Something that tickled at her memory a bit, annoying her.

The pressure on her wrist and neck disappeared and Willow took a few steps forward. Inhaling deeply, she tried to catch the other woman's scent to see if there was something there that would help her figure the mystery out.

Frowning, slightly, Willow said, "You smell funny."

"Thank you. If I bothered to breathe through my nose while I was in this backwoods little town, I'm sure I'd be able to repay the compliment," Lilah said with a strained smile.

"You smell like death."

"Chanel, actually."

Taking another breath, Willow closed her eyes and smiled. "I've smelled it before, smelled _you_ before." Giving Lilah a rather sensuous look, which was a little difficult given the caked-on dirt and her face still showing her demonic side, Willow smiled wider. "You tasted like rose petals and ash."

Taken back by her words despite herself, Lilah asked, "What?"

"You came to talk to the Master after he got rid of the Mayor. You had the most amazing scream. I had wanted to turn you as a present for Xander, 'cause he had so much fun with you, but the Master wouldn't let me. He said it would send a bad message. I tasted you for days after you died."

The smile that Lilah gave as she tried to cover up the shiver that ran up her spine, couldn't mask the fear Willow was picking up from her.

"Well, if you're hungry, why didn't you just say so? Jason, could you go get our friend here the gift we brought for her?"

"Gift?" Willow asked. Her face reverted back to its human form , her eyes sparkling.

"Are you sure?" Jason asked.

"It's fine," Lilah told him. "Go get the package."

Relenting, Jason nodded his head and headed off towards a grouping of trees.

"You got me a gift?" Willow said happily. "Xander used to bring me presents all the time. Usually someone or something to play with during the daytime so I wouldn't get bored, but really, I think he just wanted to watch. He always liked to watch me play."

Smiling tightly, Lilah said, "I'm sure he did. He sounds…thoughtful. But, this is more of a peace offering. Something we thought you might enjoy. But, knowing what I do now, that might be a bit of an understatement."

Willow didn't say anything, straining her ears to hear where Jason had run off to. That, and she was a bit confused by Lilah's statement. What kind of gift would be more meaningful now?

The silence and the waiting seemed to be getting to Lilah. Maybe Jason was taking longer than she had thought. She was searching for something to say and finally settled on what she probably thought was a safe topic, or something that might get her more information. "So, you have a talent for magic. That's…interesting."

Though the smile she gave Lilah was coy, there was definitely something hidden behind it that frightened the other woman slightly, which was exactly what she wanted. "Shh," Willow told her putting a single finger to her lips, "that would be telling."

Jason finally came back with a burlap sack slung over his one shoulder, watching Willow intently. It was comical given that the man wasn't exactly large. Even though he had no trouble with the sack, it looked way to large to be carried by him. Placing the sack on the ground, he stepped away.

Moving closer, Willow grinned as she tore open the fabric. Inside was a bound and naked girl. Her face was streaked with dried tears and her mouth was gagged with a strip of black fabric. She was a bit on the thin side, her hair tangled and matted in places, but cut short to the shoulders. Her eyes looked around wildly, not focusing on any one thing until she caught sight of Willow. For a moment, there was relief in her face. Once that moment passed, and she really got a good look at Willow, fresh tears began to spill down her cheeks as she realized her situation. She struggled, cried, and tried to get away, but there was no use.

"I've eaten you, too," Willow said as she kneeled close to the girl. "You were annoying then. At least now I don't have to shut you up myself."

"I hope you appreciate this, then. It wasn't an easy thing getting her, especially not in her former condition. The guys over in the Magic Department were annoyed at us for wasting their time with turning her back, but I thought it would be a nice gesture. You know, old friends, getting back together and all that."

Ignoring her, Willow stroked the girl's cheek, wiping away her tears only for new ones to take its place. "Shh, it's OK. Everything's going to be just fine, you'll see."

Grinning, Willow made sure to catch her victim's eyes, holding her gaze for a moment before shifting back into her demonic form, eliciting a new muffled scream from the girl. Willow was on her in an instant, biting into her neck with reckless abandon, careful not to kill the girl, yet. As she fed, she didn't even mind that the gag kept her from hearing the girl's cries correctly.

After all, Amy had already screamed as she died once for Willow and she didn't really feel like hearing it again.


	14. Chapter 14

_**A/N**_: Wow, it's been a long time. Sorry, school, work, yada, yada, yada. But, I'm not going to abandon this story (And I have forgotten about "Agents of Grey" either, by the way). Thanks go to Greywizard and the beta that he does so well. Updates will be slowish (See previous excuse). But, there is still more to go with this and the next chapter starts the change of everything. Thank you to everyone whose sent reviews, thoughts, and questions. I wish I had the space to answer everything, but that would take a lot of it, so instead I say thanks. Feedback, as always, is welcomed, even if you don't like something. Hope you all enjoy it.

Chapter 14

"I'm telling you, that ain't normal," Faith said as she punched the body shield with a quick combo.

"Yeah, well, since when have any of our lives been normal as of late, huh?" Xander said, exhaling deeply as Faith followed up with a powerful kick, sending him back a few inches. He made sure not to fall or let go of the shield, but it was a near thing at times.

"Normal for us, I mean," Faith said with a shake of her head. "I mean, we've all got shit we don't want other people knowing about, and now Buffy can just come in and take that information? You gonna stand there and tell me that's normal? Fuck, you gonna tell me she has the right?"

It was hard to argue with Faith on this point. Two nights ago, Buffy had fought a pair of demons and managed to kill one while the other got away. It seemed like a typical patrol, nothing to worry about or barely even worth mentioning. Of course, that was before they realized that the type of demon Buffy fought had a way of transferring an aspect of itself through its blood. It was a little hard to be surprised when, low and behold, Buffy said she got some of its blood on her. After that, it was a matter of trying to figure out what, if anything, she was going to inherit from the demon.

Xander had helped Giles research, but they hadn't been able to really come up with anything. There weren't any books specific to this type of demon, so it meant searching through book after book in the hopes of finding it. They hadn't come across anything by the following day when Buffy strolled into the library claiming that she could read minds. After a quick back and forth, Giles was quick to accept her claim.

At least, that's what Xander had been told. It had been one of the rare times he was in class and so had two very distinct stories told to him. One, where Giles was very believing after needing just a short time to confirm it, and another, where he was shocked and slacked jawed by the news. The truth was probably somewhere in between, but it was funny to hear Buffy's version of events, that was for sure.

But, now the problem was that Buffy was having a hard time keeping out of other people's heads, and it was causing some problems between her and everyone else. Xander could sympathize, but it was impossible to deny that it was more than a little freaky, knowing Buffy could hear their thoughts.

Steadying his grip on the shield, Xander nodded his head, letting her know he was ready for her to begin again.

"Hey, it's freaky, I admit. I think I gave her a complex with the way I practically ran out of the room whenever she came in."

"See? That's what I'm talking about! Even you've got some skeletons in the closet that you don't want her seeing."

Wincing a bit as Faith beat on the bag, Xander said, "More like I don't want her thinking I'm some big perv who can't stop thinking about sex."

Stopping, Faith smirked. "You mean you aren't?"

"Oh, I am. I just don't want her thinking that," he told her with a lopsided grin. "Listen, I'm not saying that she has the right to do it, but Giles says that she can't really stop herself – hence, all the research."

"Hence?" Faith said chuckling. "Damn, Boytoy, you've been living with G for way too long."

Xander's eyes grew wide with mock concern and he let the bag drop a bit in his hands. "Faith, if I start wearing tweed, promise you'll slay me."

"Not a problem. I'll even do you in quick. Right through the heart," she teased poking him in the chest, hard.

Laughing, Xander rubbed the spot where she poked him. As she nodded her head, Xander grabbed the body shield again and braced himself for another onslaught from the Slayer.

With Wesley gone on a trip home to England, Faith seemed a lot more excited about training. She didn't hide the fact that it was because Xander was in charge of holding the equipment for her instead of Wesley, but if it was because she knew she got to beat on him some, instead of the Englishman, Xander was still in the dark about it. It was fun, though. Like their nights inside or patrolling, it was just another activity for them. They joked around, talked and goofed off with the occasional flirting thrown in, but it was just nice. Besides, even if Faith just wanted the chance to beat up on him some, she never really hurt him and was always sorry about it if she did accidently end up injuring him slightly, in her own way of course.

They by no means saw eye to eye on every subject and argued a great deal about some things, though he was careful to avoid discussing anything having to do with his bending, unless she brought it up first. But this thing with Buffy seemed to really have her on edge and he couldn't peg down why. He knew that Faith had a hard past that she never talked about it, not really. Like his own upbringing, it was a personal pain that wasn't easy to bring up in casual conversation. He considered asking her about it, but knew better. She would clam up faster than he could run, which was saying something at this point. He could easily understand why she wouldn't want Buffy poking around in her head, but she seemed especially vocal on the subject.

"Think about something else if you see her. I tried multiplying things until, uh, well, that didn't really work," Xander said as he thought about it. "But Giles says she can't, like, go _into_ your mind or anything. Just whatever it is you're thinking about at the moment, I guess. Nothing like Jean Grey, though that would be pretty cool."

"I don't care if she just hears me thinking about what I want for dinner, I don't want her in my head," Faith said aggressively, pounding her fist on the bag with even more force.

"Well, she's working on it. It can't be easy to suddenly have this thrust on you and not be able to control it."

"You mean like being a Slayer?" she replied sarcastically.

"Yeah, something like that," Buffy said walking into the library. "Sorry, didn't think anyone would be here," she added with a sad shrug.

"Buff!" Xander said surprised by the blonde's sudden appearance. In his shock, he loosened his grip on the bag just as Faith kicked out, hard, knocking Xander to the floor.

"Crap! X, you alright?" Faith asked, crouching near him.

"Yeah, I'm good. I needed to lay down anyway."

"You're sure you're alright?" Buffy asked, hurrying over. "You need to be more careful, Xander."

"You know, I was thinking that very thing myself, but you already knew that, huh?" Xander said with a smirk.

Giving him an odd look, Buffy was about to say something before whipping her head towards Faith. The meaning was clear, and Faith didn't like it one bit.

"We got a problem?" Faith asked, standing up.

From his vantage point, Xander watched as the dark haired Slayer tensed, her body screaming that it was ready to attack. Glancing over to Buffy, he watched her go through a few different emotions. The first was the initial Slayer defensive pose, something that was always to be expected whenever Buffy or Faith thought they were being attacked. But that quickly melted away, her body relaxing somewhat, as her eyes scrunched up as if trying to process something. Next, and most shocking of all, was her reaction to whatever the hell she had been hearing in her head. Her eyes grew wide, her mouth forming a small 'O'.

"Oh, God. Faith," Buffy began, reaching her hand out towards the other girl's arm only to have her flinch back.

Faith screwed up her face in anger, attempting to push past Buffy and leave. Again, Buffy reached out to her, grabbing her arm this time. "Faith, wait."

Xander didn't see the punch, but he heard it and felt Buffy fall onto of him.

"Stay the hell away from me!" Faith growled loudly before turning on her heel and storming out of the library.

Buffy quickly got to her feet, but didn't make a move to go after the other girl. She stood, watching the doors swing shut, her hands balled into fist, shaking slightly.

"What the hell was that about?" Xander demanded as he stood up.

"My God, Xander. She…she…" Buffy started, but was unable to continue.

He held her shoulder, gently turning her towards him in case she was still wound up from being hit, not wanting to get slugged himself. Instead of the angry face he expected to see, Buffy's was filled with sadness, her eyes tearing slightly.

"What? What is it?" Xander asked again, this time with less force than before.

"I don't know how she does it. Her thoughts, they…they were filled with so much _hate_. With so much rage and sadness, I could barely make anything coherent out of them and what I could…" Buffy shuddered, hugging herself. "I didn't mean to, you know that."

Frowning, Xander said with a sigh, "I know, Buff. I know." Looking at the doors, he said, "Should we go after her, make sure she doesn't do something stupid?"

"No," Buffy replied. "She…she doesn't want anyone near her, not right now."

Looking at her chin, Xander sucked in a breath upon seeing the bruise that was beginning to form. "Yeah, I guess you don't really need to be a mind-reader to figure that out, huh?"

Buffy shook her head. "No, I guess not."

"Come on. Giles has some spare ice packs in the office. I know Slayer healing could solve this in a few hours, but it must hurt like hell still," Xander said pulling her towards one of the chairs.

"You sure? I would have thought you would want to try some of that healing water thingy you can do now," Buffy said, happy for the slight change of subject.

Xander didn't exactly trip as he walked towards the office, but his mind started running a mile a minute, despite his best efforts to stop it. He hoped that his fears and concerns about doing something like that were simply too many or too fast for Buffy to make out clearly.

"I, uh, didn't really think about it. Besides, wouldn't you rather the old fashioned method, instead of the weird magic water one?"

Shrugging, she looked at him curiously, though still depressed. "I don't mind. I trust you."

With some hesitation, Xander nodded his head. Instead of grabbing one of the cold compresses, he filled up one of the mugs with some water from the water cooler and brought it inside. As he looked at Buffy's face, his Avatar knowledge, senses, or whatever the hell it was that let him know what to do - something he really needed to learn more about- kicked in. Already the bruise on her chin had grown and had turned an ugly shade of purple and green. Apparently Slayers hitting Slayers had more of an effect than he had thought. Even when Buffy or Faith took on a strong vampire, neither of them got injured this easily. Either that, or Faith had hit her harder than Buffy had been prepared for.

Bending about half the water out of the mug, Xander closed his eyes, inhaled, and exhaled slowly, opening his eyes again. He moved the water onto Buffy's chin, careful not to cover her mouth, and began the healing process. It wouldn't take long, but he wanted to go slow to make sure he didn't screw it up.

Seeing her shiver as the cold water began to glow, Xander smiled shyly in his chair next to her. "Sorry, I didn't really let it warm up at all."

"It's OK. It wasn't the water really. It just feels kind of…strange," Buffy said, making a face.

Xander said, "Yeah, it can feel kind of odd at first. Shouldn't take long though, so don't worry."

"I'm not," Buffy assured him.

The settled into a comfortable silence as Xander continued to work, but throughout it all, he could feel her watching him. When he was finished, he bent the water back into the cup and wiped his hands on his jeans.

"There ya go, one chin, good as new," Xander joked.

"Thanks. A good as new Buffy is a happy Buffy," she said with a smile, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. Again, she gave him an odd look, her head tilted to the side as if she was waiting for him to do something.

"Um…everything alright? Do I have something on my face?" he asked, quickly wiping his hand over his mouth and cheeks trying to get rid of whatever was there.

"No, it's not that it's…" she paused for a moment, watching him again. "Man, is that some kind of Avatar Zen thing you've been doing or what?"

"Huh?"

"You have, like, no thoughts in your head," Buffy said, still looking at him with a bit of wonder.

"Really? Cause..hey!"

"No, not like that," Buffy told him. "I mean, it's like when I saw Angel earlier. There's just…nothing. It's quiet."

"Wait, you mean you can't hear anything? Nothing at all?" Xander asked.

"Nope. Nothing. I thought you were doing something to keep me out."

"You mean, I've been running away from you this whole time thinking you were hearing me think about…" Xander quickly shut his mouth, realizing what he was about to say.

"Do I even want to know?" Buffy said laughing slightly.

"Probably not."

"So, you had no idea?" she asked, bringing them back to the subject.

"Not a clue. You think if I knew that I'd have been running away like I was? A man can only take so much embarrassment before it begins to affect him on a psychological level," he quipped. "Man, that's weird, though. I wonder why you can't hear me."

"Your guess is as good as mine, but honestly, it's kind of nice. This whole mind-reading deal is _so_ not what it's cracked up to be," Buffy said with a sigh. "The only peace I've had today was when I was with Angel, and now, you. I didn't even know that you and Faith were in here. I can't tell where the voices I'm hearing are coming from sometimes, or even make out individual ones."

"Whoa," Xander said raising his eyebrows. "Buff, that's insane. Does Giles know about this?"

Shrugging, she said, "I was looking for him to let him know. If I didn't find him here, I was going to let him know tomorrow. I kind of wanted to wait till my mom went to sleep before heading back. I didn't really feel like throwing this on her tonight, ya know?"

Frowning, Xander tried to figure out a way to help. "You want me to run over and let Giles know? I can get him here in a few minutes if you want, even if he wouldn't like it."

Sighing, Buffy propped her elbow on the table and leaned her head into her hand. "No, it's alright. I can let him know tomorrow. It's…it's just kind of nice right now, not hearing anything. With everyone getting wigged out over this, it's been hard to be around anyone without hearing them. Well, that and some _really_ intense thoughts from Oz and Willow freaking out over how Amy escaped her cage.

"Would you mind just…staying here for a bit?" she continued. "I mean, if you have somewhere else to be, or something else to do, it's OK."

Leaning back in his chair, Xander gave her the best warm smile he could conjure up. "Hey, don't worry about it. Giles knows that I'm out and won't start worrying till later and Faith, well…Faith needs her alone time, I guess."

Buffy got quiet when he brought up Faith, something that was probably only going to lead to her slipping a bit further into the bout of depression see seemed to be in, he decided. Thinking quickly, Xander tried to come up with something to take her mind of the subject.

"So…" he began before stopping. "You know what, I've got nothing."

Buffy gave him a half-smile. "Xand, it's sweet, but you don't have to try and make me feel better. This whole thing is just…it's just one big mess, is all. I'm just hoping Giles can find a way to help me gain some kind of control over it."

"Hey, Giles will come through. He's been research man since you first told him about this. If he can't find a way to help you learn how to control this-"

"I'll go insane?" Buffy offered.

"That's an extreme, and no," he told her. "We'll figure something out. Don't we always?"

For the moment, Xander was glad that she couldn't read his mind. Even as he tried to comfort her, the only thing he could think of was that she might be right. In almost all of science fiction, anyone who suddenly was able to read minds usually ended up going crazy from hearing everyone's thoughts if they couldn't control it. Sure, this was real life, but then again, things never did work out that easy for them.

Much to Xander's dismay, Buffy seemed to follow typical mind-reading problems. Namely, she couldn't shut it off and she began to hear thoughts from further and further away. This had culminated in Buffy collapsing on the floor of the cafeteria due to a barrage of thoughts overwhelming her. They found out, after moving her, that she'd heard someone threaten to kill everyone in the school.

So now, on top of Buffy being confined to her room and still having trouble with hearing people's thoughts, they also had to deal with a potential school massacre.

He then received a phone call from Mrs. Summers and Xander left his friends to find the potential murderer and high-tailed it to Buffy's house. Giles had been the one to actually speak with her and said that Joyce sounded stressed on the phone, something about not being able to go near Buffy at the moment. Since he was the only one who could get close to her without adding to the cacophony of voices in her head during the daylight hours, Xander left without a moment's hesitation. Besides, it wasn't as if they had any real information on who the killer was, and his being there wouldn't make a difference in that department. If they found anything, they could reach him at Buffy's house.

Not caring about who might see him, Xander poured on the speed as he ran through the streets of Sunnydale, kicking up dust and knocking down a few street signs that weren't that well secured. It took him less than three minutes to get to Buffy's house. Knocking on the door, Joyce opened it, looking extremely surprised.

"Xander! How did you get here so fast? Rupert said that you were leaving just a few minutes ago," she said.

Xander gave her what he hoped was a comforting smile as she moved out of the doorway, while careful not to give him a verbal invitation. It was something that Buffy had complained about when she had come back after running away to L.A. last summer, but it seemed as if she had finally gotten through to her mother not to invite anyone in, no matter who it was or what time of day even.

"I'm a lot faster than I look," was all he told her. "What's wrong with Buffy?"

Joyce's face fell. "I..I don't know. One minute, she was in pain, but able to talk. The next, she's barely able say anything that makes sense because of how bad she was feeling. It's getting worse, isn't it?"

Nodding his head, Xander asked, "When was the last time you spoke with her?"

"Just a few moments ago. It was one of her…clearer moments, but…I think it best that I stay away for the moment," she told him, blushing slightly.

Confused, Xander made his way up the stairs wondering just what it was that had happened. Whatever it was, he was almost certain he didn't want to know.

Outside Buffy's door, he knocked softly. When he didn't get a response, he opened it slowly, just in case. Still, he got no response. Opening it up all the way, he stepped inside, peeking his head in first.

Buffy was curled up on her bed, her covers drawn up all the way to her neck and almost covering her head. The curtains were drawn, but given the time of day, there was still plenty of light in the room. It was hard to tell if she was asleep or just trying to shut herself out from the rest of the world and Xander was a bit hesitant to wake her if she was getting any kind of rest. Just as he was about to shut the door, her head snapped up and he looked directly at him.

"Xander?" she asked, talking louder than was really necessary.

"Um, yeah, it's me," he said awkwardly. Coming into the room, Xander closed the door but didn't move any closer. "Your mom called, she's worried."

Buffy gave him a surprised look. "She should be worried. Do you know that she asked Giles out?"

"Wait, what?"

"And that they already sex? _Twice_?" Buffy said, her voice rising higher.

"Bah!" Xander said closing his eyes tight, willing away those mental images. "Alright, _way_ too much information. Just…gah!"

"How do you think I feel? I had to hear about from my mother's thoughts!"

"OK, OK. Just…no more talk of Giles and sex, alright? I think I may be damaged for life," Xander said, shaking his head.

Wincing a bit, Buffy said, "I thought it would be better with you here." Seeing his confused look, she added, "The noise, the…all the thoughts. I thought they would be a bit quieter with someone to talk to that I couldn't hear."

"Wait, you can hear me? You can hear my thoughts now?" Xander asked.

Pausing, Buffy quirked her head before wincing again. "No," she said slowly. "No, I can't. It's not voices, it's…something else. It's like some kind of feedback or something, like white noise."

"My thoughts are background noise?" Xander asked stepping closer, stopping when Buffy winced even more.

"Stop! Just…stay where you were, OK?" Buffy grabbed her head, closing her eyes. After a few minutes, she opened them again.

"You alright?" Xander asked quietly, stepping back to stand by the door again.

"Yeah, it's just…it's getting worse. I can't block it out. Every thought is running together, and I can't stop it. I can't…the pain…"

Xander watched as Buffy clutched her head as another wave of pain hit her. It was hard not to rush to her aid. Just the couple of steps he had taken before seemed to cause her even more agony from whatever she was picking up from his thoughts. Why she was getting that, he had no idea, but he didn't want to do anything to cause her more pain.

He didn't even know what he was doing here. He had come because she hadn't been able to read his thoughts, because it might help her to have someone here that didn't add to the pain. Now, that wasn't the case anymore. His presence was just as bad as everyone else's. What good was he to her here? Should he go and try to help the others find the potential murderer? Should he be out trying to locate the other demon like Angel was?

Buffy looked at him again, her eyes open. She kept her hands against her head, but was no longer pressing them against it as if she were about to crush her skull. Xander could see the red marks on the side of her scalp were her nails had dug in, though. She didn't seem to be in pain at the moment, but he had no way of telling.

"Oh," Buffy said quietly, her eyes growing wide. "Oh," she said again, louder, her eyes getting wider. "Oh, God!"

"Buffy?" Xander called to her once he noticed that she wasn't focusing on him, but rather in his general direction. "Buffy, what is it?"

"There's so many," she said, almost yelling at him. "I can't…I can't…there's too many of them, I can't take it!"

Forgetting about keeping his distance, Xander rushed to her side. "It'll be alright," he whispers to her. "Giles and Angel are working on a way to fix this, it'll be alright."

"God, there's so many of them. They're all in there. I can hear them, I can hear all of them." She looked at him, her face contorted in pain and worry. "How…how can you stand it? All that whispering, all of them right inside your head?"

Confused, Xander just looked back at her, not understanding. "Buffy…I can't hear anyone."

Grabbing his head, Buffy pushed him away and onto the floor. "No! No, get away! I don't…I don't want to. I can't…I can't understand! I don't want it!"

Scuttling back on his ass, Xander hit the wall and stopped.

He didn't know what was going on, but being near Buffy obviously wasn't doing anything for her. Leaving seemed like the best option, but the door was on the other side of the room now, and each time he attempted to get up and move towards it, Buffy would moan louder and thrash around on her bed. Finally, he gave up and moved into the corner, furthest from Buffy.

It didn't help much, but it stopped the worst of it, it seemed. After a few moments, Buffy seemed to calm down. It was only after Xander watched her for a few minutes that he realized that she wasn't simply resting, but that something was wrong.

Buffy was lying on her back, her eyes open, and her breathing was steady. However, aside from breathing, she wasn't moving in the slightest. As Xander watched, silent tears began running down her cheeks. Attempting to get up and check on her was met with the blonde's breathing beginning to increase rapidly and her muscles start to tense up. Whatever was happening, Xander concluded, he wouldn't be able to get near her without hurting her and possibly putting her in danger.

"Joyce!" Xander called out, hoping that the woman would hear him.

For all his power, there wasn't a thing Xander could do except to sit there and watch one of his best friends lay there in agony.

The next half hour was one of the worst in Xander's life - which said a lot, considering everything that had happened along the years. But to sit by, helplessly while Buffy was basically tortured, to know that he could do nothing to help, tore him up inside. As it was, he was still sitting in the corner, unable to move out of fear of hurting Buffy and possibly ruining their chance at removing the aspect of the demon from her. It didn't even bother him watching Angel sitting next to her, holding her hand as she lay there, unconscious, for the few minutes he stopped in to check on her before going out to hunt the second demon.

It had taken Joyce only a few minutes to contact Giles and tell him everything that Xander had told her. It was odd, relaying what had happened across the room to her as she tried to block out her daughter's pain, something that was impossible to do while she was right in front of her. Seeing Joyce standing there, barely keeping herself from breaking down would be something that would stick with Xander forever. The woman, who was someone he would have loved to call mom, was an emotional wreck and he could do nothing for her. He couldn't even offer her comfort since any movement on his part only sent Buffy into another convulsion.

Xander didn't know how, but somehow Giles was at the door in fifteen minutes. He wasn't even aware the ex-Watcher's car could move that fast, but he wouldn't have been surprised if he had merely hotwired someone else's in order to get there. Like Joyce, he seemed devastated at the sight of Buffy, but he schooled his features and kept himself calm for Joyce's sake. There was no hiding the look of pity he had for Xander, which only served to make the young man feel worse about the whole situation.

With the two adults standing and keeping vigil in the doorway and Xander in the far corner of the room, they waited. There was no way to contact Angel, to see if he had managed to locate the demon yet, and there was nothing more they could do.

When the knock at the downstairs door came, it made everyone, aside from Buffy, jump.

Joyce rushed down the stairs to answer, returning with Angel right behind her. He threw off a smoking blanket and was holding a glowing vial of liquid that Xander could only hope was the finished potion Giles had been working on, along with the heart of the second demon Angel had been out looking for.

It had been tense, but after making Buffy swallow the potion and a short scare with her convulsing some more, she finally seemed to calm down. Xander still refused to move, just in case it hadn't worked or she wasn't quite back to normal yet, and could only watch.

Slowly, Buffy opens her eyes.

Xander heard Joyce and Angel say something, but couldn't pay any attention to them. The only thing he was focused on was Buffy.

"Angel?" the blonde asked.

Joyce let out a breath, asking, "Are you alright? Do you hear any thoughts?"

Concentrating for a moment, Buffy shook her head. "No…" Looking over to Giles, she asked, "Did you find the killer?"

"No, not yet. The others are still looking-"

"We have to get there," Buffy told him, cutting Giles off. Getting out of bed, she faltered for a moment before righting herself. "There might still be time."

Slowly, a bit unsure, Xander got to his feet. His eyes caught Buffy's, stopping her.

"Xander…"

"Not now," he said shaking his head. "You said we need to get to the school, than let's go."

"Honey, are you sure you're alright? Don't you think you need to lie down and rest?" Joyce asked concerned.

"There's no time, mom." Buffy looked at her pleadingly. "I swear, I'll come home after this and I won't get out of bed all night, trust me. But right now…I need to get the school."

"I have a car downstairs," Giles said, moving out of the doorway and into the hall.

"Good," Buffy said with a quick nod of her head. "Xander, come on, you're with me. Angel," she turned towards the vampire and it was obvious she wanted to run into his arms, but she stopped herself, "Thank you."

Angel nodded his head, watching her leave. On the way out, Angel patted Xander on the shoulder, surprising him, but not enough that he said anything. Saying a quick goodbye to Joyce, Xander quickly caught up to Buffy downstairs.

"You sure you're up for this?" he asked quietly as they headed outside.

"No, but when has that ever stopped me before?"

"Good point," Xander conceded. "At least we'll-" Xander stopped mid sentence and stared at the sight in front of him. Sitting at the curb in a little red sports car with the engine revving, was Giles.

"How long was I out for?" Buffy asked, looking as confused as Xander.

"I thought it, but I didn't think you'd actually do it!" Xander exclaimed.

"Yes, right. If you wouldn't mind, can you both get in the bloody car already?" Giles said loudly, knocking both teenagers out of their shock and back into action.

Not bothering with the door, Buffy and Xander both jumped over the side and into the front and back seat, respectively. Though Xander did so with far less grace than his friend.

"Alright, I'm good," he said, grabbing his knee after slamming it into the gear shift console. "Let's go."

Pulling away from the house far faster than was safe, Giles sped towards the school.

"You do know this isn't your car, right Giles?" Xander said with a smirk.

"Really? I wasn't aware," he replied drolly, rolling his eyes while shifting into second.

"So, ya gotta wonder," Xander said, drawing out the words, "whose car is it?"

After a beat, Giles said, "Let's just say they pay certain principals far too much money."

Grinning, Xander said, "Ya hear that, Buffy? Giles stole Snyder's car. I think we might just be rubbing off on him."

"Please," Giles said with a snort. "I was hotwiring cars before either of you were born."

Ignoring both of them, Buffy said, "Once we get to the school, split up. Find the others, if you can, or look for anyone that might be about to do something."

Sobering up quickly, Xander nodded his head. "Anything specific?"

"I'm sure we'll know it when we see it. It's kind of hard to take out a school in secret."

With how fast Giles was going, it didn't take long before they reached the school. Each of them headed off in different directions, though Xander snorted a bit when he realized that Giles had left Snyder's car running and double parked.

Sometimes, in situations like this, it was the little things that you had to hold onto to keep yourself sane.

Moving swiftly through the halls, Xander was having a hard time finding any of his other friends. He didn't bother with the Library since that would probably be the first place Giles would look anyway. Without any real way of knowing where anyone would be, his only hope was finding them, or even the potential mass murderer, by sheer dumb luck. So, by that, he meant he didn't think he would be finding anyone at all, considering the ol' Harris luck.

Searching for twenty minutes without anything to show for it was getting downright annoying. By this time, he was certain that he would have found _someone_, even if it was just Buffy. He was on his last nerve by this point. With everything that was going on, with what had happened to Buffy, with Faith being MIA, _again_, and now not having any clue as to what was going on with the murderer in the school, Xander was about ready to scream.

As he stalked down the hall, cursing under his breath in with a very creative use of Earth Kingdom dialect, Xander poked his head into every classroom that wasn't in use. He swore that he wouldn't give up yet, that he would keep looking if he had to go through the school a hundred times, he wouldn't stop till he found someone, _anyone_! This was too important. There were lives at stake. There were-

His stomach rumbled loudly, and despite no one being near him, he blushed slightly. To his left was the cafeteria and while it might not be the greatest food – or possibly actual food, even - it was making him hungry. Looking into the kitchen, he found a tray of jello.

"Ooh. Jello!"

OK, so a small bite wasn't going to kill anyone, was it? He was starving and the lack of food was probably making him sloppy - he could end up missing something vital if he didn't keep his strength up! At least, that's what he told himself as he made his way to the gelatin, grabbing a spoon on the way. Just as he scooped up some from one of the cups, something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Glancing over, he saw the lunch lady watching him.

_'Crap!'_

Before he tried to explain himself, though, he noticed the box in her hand. A big box that said 'Rat Poison'. A big box of Rat Poison that she was pouring into the pot of stew that was being served at lunch today.

Catching on at the same time he did, the lunch lady lunged at him, barely missing him even as Xander twisted and turned away from her.

There were really only two options that Xander could see. He could either stand and fight the lunch lady, or he could get everyone who was already in the cafeteria to stop eating the poisoned stew. As it was, it wasn't as if the lunch lady would simply let him go and go back to her attempted mass murder plot, but the students would continue eating if he didn't do something to stop it.

Pushing out with his palm and drawing it quickly back to himself, Xander bent the water in the pot of the stew towards him, knocking it over and spilling its contents onto the floor. Not only did it get rid of the even worse than normal lunch, it had the added bonus of tripping up the lunch lady and buying him a few minutes to get inside.

Rushing out the door and into the cafeteria, Xander started yelling at everyone.

"It's poison! Stop eating! No! No more with the eating!"

Seeing a few people ignoring him, Xander grabbed the table closest to him and flipped it over, knocking the food to the floor. "What did I just say?"

The scream behind him was the only warning he got. Bending over backwards, he watches a cleaver swing past his face. Spinning to face the threat, he saw the lunch lady in front of him holding the large knife.

"Alright, crazy eyes. That's never a good sign," he muttered to himself, dancing around her as she continued to attack him. Getting tired of the dodging and waiting for her to tire herself out, Xander prepared himself to blast her back with a strong gust of wind, not caring about the other students watching him. He stopped as someone grabbed the lunch lady's wrist, stopping her next attack.

With a sigh of relief, Xander let Buffy take over from there, glad to let her do the heavy lifting. Though after a short exchange, and an even shorter fight, it was over.

"Didn't I tell you that she'd do us in with that stew?" Xander asked Buffy conversationally. "But, nooooo. No one listens to Xander."

The next morning, Buffy found herself sitting on a table in the library, waiting for Giles to join her. He had already met her outside, but she guessed he needed time to collect himself after Buffy telling him that she knew about her mother having sex with him –she shuddered slightly- and his walking into a tree. A part of her hoped that he had hurt himself. Not a lot, just enough so that way he would think twice about doing that ever, ever, ever again.

She had to train. She knew that, but she was still reeling a bit from the whole psychic thing. The headache was mostly gone, but she was still feeling a little shaky. She knew that Giles wouldn't push her today, not if she wasn't really able to do it, but she still needed to talk to him. There were certain things that she had heard and felt in other people's minds that she felt couldn't wait.

She didn't need to wait long, though. Giles walked into the library and gave her a somewhat embarrassed look, before clearing his throat.

"Yes, well, um, shall we begin with some light calisthenics, perhaps? Something to ease you back into everything?"

Shrugging, Buffy said, "Eh, maybe later."

Switching automatically into clinical mode, forgetting about his earlier embarrassment, Giles immediately asked, "Is everything alright? There aren't any lingering side effects I should hope, are there?"

"No, no. Nothing like that. Well, my head hurts, kind of, but it's getting better," Buffy reassured him. Fiddling with a pencil in her hand, she looked down before speaking. "Giles, how much do we know about Faith? I mean, about her life before becoming a Slayer?"

"I'm sorry? What precisely do you mean?"

"I mean, was she raised like other potentials? Did the Council take her from her family when she was a baby, or was she like me and slipped through the cracks?"

Thinking for a moment, Giles said, "I believe that she was like you for most of her life. She grew up not knowing anything about the supernatural until a few months before she was called. While the Council has a lot of political clout, the world isn't like it once was. Simply taking a child away from their parent's isn't as easy of a task as it once was, especially in America. Why do you ask?"

"Well, it just seems like we know so little about her and she is a part of the group, after all. I mean, we should know stuff. Like, what's her favorite food, what she does for fun. Who her, uh, parents are."

Frowning, Giles looked at her very seriously. "Buffy, did something happen?"

Still looking away, Buffy tried to gather her thoughts.

"I read Faith's mind the other night, before everything got bad with it. I didn't mean to, I had come here looking for you, but I found Faith and Xander, instead." She stopped and looked him in the eyes. "What I saw in Faith's mind, the thoughts she was having, they made no sense. There was nothing but pain and anguish and rage, almost none of it made any sense. Giles, it frightened me. And what did make sense…Giles, who's Jeff Robertson?"

Shaking his head slightly, Giles said, "I have no idea. Was that who Faith was thinking about?"

"The little bit that made sense - the few thoughts that weren't completely jumbled - she kept going over his name. Over and over again, like a mantra. She kept repeating his name and saying that she couldn't slip up, she couldn't let him know."

"She couldn't let this Robertson person know something?"

Frowning, Buffy said, "I don't think so. I think…I think that she meant Xander. Her emotions were all messed up when she was thinking about it. When she thought of Robertson, there was anger to it. Anger and…and shame."

Sighing deeply, Giles' shoulders slumped, his face looking older than Buffy had ever seen it. "Honestly, Buffy, I haven't a clue as to who this man might be. I have my…my suspicions, given what you've told me, but until I can get in touch with Wesley, I can't see Faith's file."

"What? But, Giles, this is important! We can't wait around for Wesley to take a break from visiting his family to get this information. What if…what if something happens?"

Putting his hands up, Giles tried to calm her down. "Buffy, I understand your frustration, I do. But the fact of the matter is, we don't _have_ any information at the moment. I feel we may share the same theory as to what it is Faith is dealing with - am I correct?"

Buffy nodded her head, ready to speak again before Giles cut her off.

"Then you know how delicate this kind of situation is. We, unfortunately, have to wait. If we confront Faith with what we suspect instead of what we know, then it might only make the situation worse." Putting his hands on her shoulders, Giles shook his head sadly. "I wish I could tell you differently. That I could tell you that things like this don't happen, but I can't."

Thinking back on a similar exchange between herself and her Watcher as they waited for Billy Fordham to rise, Buffy frowned. "I know. I just…if this happened, Giles, someone is going to pay. I don't know who yet, but they aren't getting away with this."

Giles squeezed her shoulders, unable to tell her that she was wrong. He also didn't mention that he would do everything in his power to ensure that _he_ was the one to dole out the punishment, in order to keep Buffy and Faith as clean of the situation as possible.

"I don't think we'll be getting anything done today as far as training is concerned. You still have plenty of time before your first class, if you'd like to find Willow or Xander."

"Actually," Buffy said, her tone of voice holding him in his place, "there's more."

Taking off his glasses, Giles took a few steps back, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Of course, there's more."

"It's about Xander."

Giles stopped moving. Looking at her very carefully, he nodded his head, silently urging her to continue.

Buffy had known that he would pay more attention when she mentioned Xander's name. It was easy to anyone with a pair of working eyes to see that Giles cared for him more than simply because he was Buffy's friend. He had grown to care for him like the son he didn't have, even if he never said it. He cared for Xander probably as much as he cared for Buffy, herself. That didn't mean that he wasn't just as concerned about Faith and the potential problem with her, but if forced to choose, Buffy didn't think the Council would be happy with his answer.

"Yesterday, when Xander was in my room, I…"

"You read his mind?"

"Yes. No. I don't know!" Buffy said in frustration. "Something happened, though. It was like every other thought around me was blocked out. The only thing I could make out was some kind of noise at first. It was OK for a few minutes, kinda annoying, but better than all the other voices. The longer he was near me, the louder it got. Like this wall of sound that someone kept turning up, and up, and up."

"His thoughts became louder?"

"No, the noise became louder. All of a sudden, it was like I couldn't hear anything, but the noise. It hurt. I mean, it _really_ hurt. It was worse than hearing everyone else's thoughts. It started to sound like whispering. Like hundreds of voices all talking at once."

Removing his glasses, Giles polished them, which spoke volumes to Buffy. "Did you…were you able to make out what any of them were saying? Perhaps they weren't all from Xander. You could have simply been picking up the thoughts of others at that time. You're range had increased drastically since you were first affected - it might not have been Xander that you were hearing."

"They were all in that, um, Asian language that he speaks," Buffy told him before continuing. "The voices weren't what hurt me, though. The worst part of it was how they made me feel. It was like the whispers weren't enough; they had to give off this vibe, ya know? It made me feel…small, powerless. Like I was this tiny, insignificant thing that they could wipe off the planet anytime they wanted."

Buffy caught Giles' eye, making sure that he understood that she didn't want to say what she was about to, but that she needed to. "Giles, this thing scared me. It overwhelmed me and it hurt to even think about it when I was like that. Giles…this thing came from Xander. I…I think it _was_ Xander."

Giles turned his back on Buffy. Putting his hands on the checkout counter, he leaned heavily on his arms. His shoulders sagged a bit as he lowered his head. "Damn," he muttered, quietly. If it hadn't been for her enhanced hearing, Buffy was sure she would have missed it.

"I'm going say that you're not exactly surprised by this, are you?"

Shaking his head, still turned from her, Giles said, "Surprised? No. I wasn't expecting it, but the idea had crossed my mind."

"You thought Xander was hearing voices?"

The chuckle that escaped Giles throat didn't do anything to put Buffy at ease. "No, nothing like that. The voices you heard, if they did come from Xander…Buffy, do you remember what Xander told us about the Avatar? About how each time one dies, they are reborn, reincarnated into another person at that exact moment?"

"Yeah. Well, it sounded a bit New Age-y, but I got the jist of it."

"Something that's been bothering me since he's mentioned that is the nature of the Avatar. If they are reincarnated, then that means that every life the Avatar has ever lived, everything they ever did, ever experienced, they're inside of him, somewhere." Turning, he faced Buffy, his face somber. "Reincarnation is a tricky subject when you get into the workings of it. Warlocks and dark witches have used it as ways to extend their lives, to cheat death in a way, in the past. My concern is that the Avatar that inhabited Xander may have done something similar, whether intentional or not."

"Wait, you lost me there," Buffy said blinking in confusion.

"What I'm saying is that the Avatar, Aang, may have left more than just the power that Xander now has when he possessed him that night. I can't begin to imagine how it works, to be honest, but one of the things that has me worried is how much of an influence that is having on him on a basic level. Did his personality change because he saw things in a new light, or was it because something is changing him without him even knowing it, against his own wishes?"

"Like suddenly having warm and fluffy feelings towards the undead population," Buffy said, catching on. "Giles, what the hell do we do? How do we stop it?"

Closing his eyes, Giles waited a beat before opening them again, looking extremely tired suddenly. "Unfortunately, at the moment, there is nothing we can do. We don't have nearly enough information to act, even if we knew what the case is with Xander. This is not only new territory for us, but we're dealing with a force that we can't even begin to try and understand, not with what we know so far."

"So we do nothing? Giles, I'm tired of doing nothing. Me and nothing don't get along." Buffy hopped off the table, hands balled into fists.

Moving in front of her, he placed a hand on Buffy's shoulder. She knew it was meant to calm her, to comfort her, but it did none of that. First, the mind-reading had taken her out of play when there was a killer on the loose and now she had to sit back and wait, all the while knowing that there may be something horrible wrong with both Faith and Xander. It was frustrating. It was more than frustrating, it was practically impossible.

The expression on her face must have said it all. Giles sighed, took a few steps back, and perched his glasses back on his nose. "Do you know why Wesley is in England?"

"He said he was visiting family," Buffy replied, a bit uncertain about the change in topic.

"While it is true, it's not the complete truth," Giles told her. "Buffy, what I'm about to tell you cannot go any further, especially until Wesley returns."

When she nodded, slowly, he continued.

"Do you remember the book that Wesley obtained from his father, the one containing some historical passages concerning the Avatar's world? There are more. At least, we believe there are more books that the Council is hiding somewhere," Giles paused, taking a breath. "Wesley's father, along with two other members of the Council at the time, effectively hid this information from everyone else."

"If they hid it, how did Wesley get it?" Seeing the surprised look on his face, Buffy rolled her eyes. "Geez, does _everyone_ think that I'm really that blonde?"

"No. No, of course not," he replied, trying to sound believable. And failing dismally. Clearing his throat again, he got back to the topic. "But, you're asking the right question. It's precisely why Wesley went back to the Council. His father sent him the book, but didn't want just anyone gaining access to this information. So, yes, the question is _why_? Which is exactly what we intend to find out."

"So…we just wait?"

Sighing heavily, Giles nodded his head. "Unfortunately, yes. What we can do, in the next few days, however, is watch. Pay close attention to both Faith and Xander. It's not likely that either of them will get to the point where they will become a danger to themselves or others in the time it takes for Wesley to return, but it would be safer to keep an eye on them."

Grumbling, Buffy knew that Giles was right. At the moment, she couldn't do anything. But she felt so much pain from Faith, she wanted to reach out and help the younger Slayer. And Xander…Christ, what she heard and felt from him yesterday frightened her - for him, as well as herself. If he wasn't still Xander, if he had been taken over by this…this _thing_, she would kill it.

And then she would find Ethan Rayne and kill him as well.

Saying her goodbyes to Giles, she numbly walked out of the library, hoping that Wesley found something that would help them.

Folding his hands behind his back, Wesley stared out the large bay windows in his father's office. The view, he admitted, was amazing. From this height, he could see the river Thames and London Bridge not too far distance. The sun was setting, casting the sky in a dark red light which the river reflected. With the lights of London coming on, it really was quite beautiful.

As a little boy, he would come here with his mother from time to time, and he remembered being mesmerized by what he saw outside of the window. Of course, that was before his father took a rather…heavy handed approach to his upbringing. But for those few short years, this had been one of his favorite places. Back when things were simple, when he didn't know about the uglier side of the world, of people, and most certainly before he knew about the supernatural.

Truthfully, being told about the demonic and mystical side of life had been rather invigorating, even when he was told that he would be a Watcher. Hell, if he was honest with himself, he knew that becoming a Watcher was something he would strive for when he was told so, in some misguided attempt to gain his father's love and respect. That, like so much in his life, did not go as planned. But the knowledge he gained, the books he had been given access to and the information therein had been an escape from all of that.

Some teenagers hid away in fantasy, in movies or in music. Some of them turned to drugs or, those that ran in his circles, sometimes the darker arts. But, no, not him. He didn't need any of that when the amazing and fantastic world that he knew was open to him, was there to explore, to absorb and, above all else, to master. Again, it might have been a play to gain his father's acceptance, but that didn't matter. Almost everything he did back then was devoted to learning as much as he could. Whether it was mysticism, the various demonic clans, the proper way to train a Slayer, and, of course, hand to hand combat.

He had dedicated his life to these things, spent over a decade in his quest to be the most perfect Watcher there ever was. And in less than a handful of months, all of that had been laid to waste.

While his cold hard facts about demons and magic might be useful, his real world application of anything he knew was woefully useless. He couldn't command respect from anyone in the group back in Sunnydale and had to resort to having Mr. Giles continue helping him in order to get Buffy and Faith to listen to him at first, though it was hardly any better now, at times. His skills as a fighter were practically nonexistent out in the field. When several teenagers with no formal training in any capacity had more individual kills than he did…well, it had almost been enough to wake him up. Truthfully, he probably would have continued thinking that his way was right, even with all of those blaring signs to the contrary. If Mr. Giles hadn't seen fit to show him certain things, to bring him into the group and not treat him as some annoying pest, he would most likely have run to the Council with his information on Xander Harris. Now, here he was, trying to smuggle out information back to the Slayer and her group about that very young man, all the while doing things that were very much against what he was taught.

He didn't know what sort of man that made him. Was he changing into something better or into something worse? The rules and expectations of his youth weighed heavily on him, but he couldn't ignore what he had been shown. Outside the walls of the Council, the real war was being fought. The Slayer was no longer some lofty idea that he read about, to be used as a tool in any way he saw fit. But, strategy would dictate that a single Slayer wasn't useful, that you had to think of the Slayer as a whole, which would mean ignoring the fact that in five years, you might be lucky to have only that many Slayers called. But hadn't Buffy Summers proven that wrong, or was she merely the exception that proved the rule?

Hearing the door open, Wesley put these thoughts aside for the moment.

Turning, he kept his face devoid of any emotion and his back straight. It was a requirement when dealing with his father. It wasn't proper etiquette, not really. More like a series of war games that he had been playing for a long, long time. He only wished that he could say he was better at it than he was.

"Wesley," his father said entering the room, his voice every bit as sure of itself as the man was. "I was surprised to hear that you were here."

"Really?" Wesley asked. "I was sure the two Council guards that were trailing me from Heathrow might have alerted you."

Nodding, his father made his way to stand behind his desk, never taking his eyes off Wesley. "The Council tracks all of its operatives when they leave their post, though I'm sure you knew that already."

"I wasn't aware that being the Watcher of the Slayer, or Slayers as the case may be, put me in the same category as other operatives."

"Of course it does! You were placed in this position, a position of great importance in case you've forgotten, because we thought you wouldn't make the same mistakes that Rupert Giles made. We were correct, in that at least. You've managed to make all new mistakes!" the senior Pryce said loudly.

Bristling at his comment, Wesley felt the urge to look away, but stopped himself. He needed to be strong right now and not give in to the emotions he still held from his younger years. "Exactly what mistakes would those be, father? Both Slayers are fine, healthy, and fighting."

"And what exactly would you call a Watcher who leaves his Slayer, hmm?" his father questioned him, his voice getting louder still. "You left not one, but two Slayers, on the Hellmouth of all places, without any aid, without anyone to make sure that they are doing things correctly. How do you think that reflects on me?"

"I wasn't aware that you were now the Watcher of Buffy and Faith." Wesley was as shocked as his father appeared to be at his words, though he tried not to show it. His father, on the other hand, didn't even try to wipe the look of surprise off his face, or bother to hide the outrage that followed.

"You watch your cheek, you insolent brat. Who do you think put your name out there for the position, hmm? Or did you honestly believe that you did it based solely on your _accomplishments_ at the academy?"

This time, Wesley couldn't keep his face neutral and felt his mouth open slightly, at a loss for words. When he had been appointed to the position of Watcher of the Slayer, he hadn't given it much thought. Well, not much realistic thought, as he now looked back on it. He had been surprised by the news, and proud as well, boastful to his colleagues that he was going to be one of the youngest Watchers in their history to be given an active Slayer. At the time, he really had thought it was because of his scores at the Watchers academy, that he was truly the best choice for the job. That, and he thought that the Council wanted someone younger, perhaps someone who wouldn't fall into the trap of becoming fatherly to the Slayer like Giles had.

He had been a fool.

Having spent time with the group of mismatched students and Mr. Giles, he found that the emotional bond they all shared only strengthened them. They would do more for each other, fight harder, strive to beat back whatever hell spawn that threatened one of them because of it. Mr. Giles' feelings towards Buffy, while strictly against everything the Council taught, was probably the best thing that could have happened. While being completely unorthodox and wholly outside of the Slayer handbook, Buffy Summers was quickly becoming one the greatest Slayers in recent history. If she kept up, she would undoubtedly be the longest living Slayer, though that really was not a hard claim to top. Faith, as well, was shaping up to be a force to be reckoned with in her own right, though there were several rough edges to smooth out.

But, even with his own foolishness and ignorant thinking, he was mostly surprised to hear that his father was the one who suggested his appointment to the position. Undoubtedly, it was probably his word and no little amount of political clout that got Wesley the job. But, why would his father do that? It wasn't as if he was showered with praise by him and he doubted that was something that he would do among his colleagues and friends within the Council.

"No, you didn't even bother to think about it, did you?" his father said, a slight sneer in his voice. "You never did know when you were in over your head, always thinking you knew better."

His father gave him a harsh look before getting suspicious. His voice back to normal levels, he said, "You aren't here, running back with your tail between your legs over the job given to you, are you?"

"No," Wesley said softly. Clearing his throat, he repeated himself, though still somewhat sheepishly. "No, everything on the Hellmouth is fine."

"Wesley, if you honestly believe that everything is fine, then you have either severely overlooked something, or you merely haven't the foggiest idea as to where you were sent. Nothing on the Hellmouth is ever _fine_."

Closing his eyes, Wesley tried not to fall back into old habits. Really, he was trying. But being around his father had always done this to him. It turned him from being the self-assured man he thought he was back into that small child who could do nothing right. All of the old, painful memories would come flooding back turning him into an idiot.

"Wesley," his father said, his voice tired, "Why did you come here, hmm?"

Right, the whole reason for this trip, the confrontation with his father over the book he had sent. Back in Sunnydale, even on the plane ride here, it had all seemed so simple: - come here, show his father the evidence of his cover up and demand an explanation.

How could he have ever thought it would be that simple?

He had practiced what he was going to say, going it over and over again in his mind. To his own embarrassment, he had even been caught saying it out loud once in the library, much to Willow and Xander's amusement. Thankfully, neither of them knew exactly what it was he was practicing and let it go with barely contained laughter. Despite all of that, all the different scenarios he had played out in his head, it hadn't done a damn bit of good. All of that prep work wasn't worth a damn now that he was actually here in front of the man.

Unable to say a word, Wesley reached into his jacket pocket and removed the leather bound book his father had sent him. Silently, he stepped forward, placing it on the desk. He was afraid to look up into his father's eyes, of what he might see.

Taking a few steps back, Wesley waited for his father to say something. Several moments passed in silence. When it became too much, Wesley gathered his courage, held his head up, and looked at his father.

Despite having been angry a minute ago, all traces of it were gone. Wesley had been expecting his gaze to still hold the heat it had before, now his look was…confusing. _He_ didn't look confused, oh no. His father was anything but lost. Wesley simply couldn't make out what the man was feeling at the moment. Despite his father's tendency to keep his emotions closed off from him (those other than anger and disappointment, anyway), Wesley would say he was fairly good at picking up on the subtle shifts the man went through. Now, though, it was almost as if his father couldn't quite decide how he wanted to react.

Concern, surprise, and wariness all showed on his face. His eyes, while guarded, appeared to be searching Wesley for something that, for the life of him, he couldn't figure out. Usually, his father would control any and all conversations, but his body language gave the appearance of waiting, along with a slew of other signals. If his father was waiting for him to make the first move, he better settle in for a good long time. With his father's gaze on him such as it was, and this new side of him, Wesley didn't trust himself to move, let alone speak!

"What's this?" his father asked after it became apparent that Wesley wasn't going to say anything.

"It's, uh….it's your book. The one you lent me." Wesley's voice was soft, hesitant. He didn't dare raise it any higher, afraid that his throat would close up if he did.

Raising an eyebrow, Roger Wyndam-Pryce stood taller as he continued to watch his son.

"I wasn't aware that the post wasn't working," he said dryly. "If you came all the way here simply to return a book I loaned you, perhaps I was truly mistaken to think you were up to the challenge of training the Slayer."

Ignoring the comment, Wesley pushed on, still unable to raise his voice beyond a gentle, almost docile tone. "The book was quite…informative once I was able to decipher it."

Again, Wesley watched his father become uneasy. Yes, that was the only way to describe it. All of those emotions that seemed to be at war made the man uneasy, but he was, dare Wesley say it, excited. Expectant.

"You were able to read it? That fast? I wasn't aware that you studied any of Asian languages."

"I had some help," Wesley said warily.

"Did you find it useful?"

"Yes," he replied slowly, no longer feeling as embarrassed as he was before. Playing a hunch, one that he didn't fully understand even, he said, "As I said, it was very…enlightening. I was wondering if you had anything else on the subject, actually. I tried to go through the Council records, but there was nothing there, not even this book."

"It isn't uncommon for the members of the Council to have a private collection."

"True," Wesley conceded, "but typically, when a request is made to the Council archive for any information, the other members don't offer books from their private collection. Usually, there isn't a memo that goes out for every request and even if there were, no one would be able to read them all. The only way anyone could know, would be if they were watching for someone to go looking into a specific area - something that, as far as I'm aware of, isn't allowed under normal circumstances."

Pausing, his father nodded his head once. "Under normal circumstances, no."

"But, you had cause to do so," Wesley said when it was clear his father wasn't going to add anything. Taking another leap of faith, he said, "In fact, you were expecting this. You were prepared for me to go searching, weren't you?"

Nodding again, the elder Pryce moved over to the fireplace. "Wesley, there are many things that I have made preparations for over the years. This, however, was not one of them. When you were younger, I thought that perhaps you might stumble across something like this and that would inevitably lead you to this discovery. But, as you got older, it became clear to me that wasn't going to be the case."

"Sorry to have disappointed you," Wesley deadpanned.

"It's quite alright," Roger dismissed his comment without a thought, "It simply wasn't meant to be. At least, that's what I thought.

"I admit, when I found out about your interest in the subject, I merely thought it was a coincidence. But, as you know, coincidences rarely exist in our line of work. At first, I wasn't going to give you the book, but I thought better of it after some further consideration. A second chance, of sorts. It seems that this time, at least, you proved me right." Striking a long match from off the mantel, Roger turned on the gas and lit the fire.

"What is it? What exactly were you hoping for me to find?"

"Information, Wesley. What you found in that book isn't doled out to simply anyone. My father, the good man that he was, wasn't even aware of it. Had I not gone routing around through our family's records, I sincerely doubt my grandfather, your great-grandfather, would have told me any of it. Afterwards, though, I understood why."

"Understood what?" Wesley said, taking a step towards his father. "What does our family have to do with any of this?"

Snorting, his father shook his head as if amused. "Wesley, what do you know of our family history, hmm?"

Lost as to what it had to do with anything, Wesley replied, "Only what you've told me. As far back as anyone can say with certainty, we've been a part of the Council."

"Yes, and how far can we trace that back?"

"I'm…not completely certain. Late seventeenth century to be sure, but further than that and-"

"Fifteen hundred and sixty-five. That is the exact year the Pryce family entered into the Council. The exact date can be found in one of the books I have, similar to that one there."

Glancing at the book on the desk, Wesley's mind went completely blank. He had absolutely no idea what his father was talking about, let alone how they even arrived at their current subject.

When he looked back at his father, he saw the strangest thing he had ever seen in his life. If it weren't for the fact that they were in the Council's headquarters and shielded by the layers of protective magics and wards built into its very foundation, Wesley would have assumed that the man in front of him was not Roger Wyndam-Pryce.

His father was smiling.

"Wesley, there's a bottle of Scotch in my desk that I've been saving for a very long time for just the right moment. I believe now is that moment. Come, my boy. Let me tell you about our family."


	15. Chapter 15

**_A/N: _**Thanks again to the great beta work of Greywizard, especially for those times when I slip back and forth between past and present tense and I don't notice. Also, thanks to everyone who's been reading and those who have left comments. This is where everything changes and since my chapters are going to be a bit further spaced than I would like, they will also be a bit longer to make up for it. As always, feedback is always welcomed. Hope you all enjoy.

Chapter 15

"Yes, you are."

"No I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"_No_, I'm not."

"_Yes_, you are."

"It doesn't matter how many times you say it, it doesn't change that fact that I am _not_ going."

"How can you not want to go? Think about what you'll be missing out on!"

"You mean everybody dancing, laughing, having a goodtime and being all snuggly with some kind of honey? You mean something that resembles an actual date? Thanks, Buff, but no thanks," Xander snorted.

"You'll go, you'll dance, you'll even have a good time," Buffy said pointedly ignoring his opposition.

"No, _you_ will go, dance, and make with the googol-y eyes with Angel. _I_ will be at home listening to country music and wallowing in the Xander shaped indent on Giles couch," Xander told her, trying to put as much finality in his words as possible.

The very fact that this conversation had come up no less than three times should have given him some idea that it was futile, but Xander was nothing if not persistent.

Prom was coming up, something that a handful of months ago would have had him scrambling for a date and trying to make the most of it. Now, Xander simply wanted to pass the night away with as little involvement as possible. Preferably, watching a marathon of Prom related horror movies. Horror movies didn't hold the same appeal as they once did, but if you started thinking about some of them hard enough, you could begin to see how they might actually happen in a town like this. The only thing he hoped was that no one rigged a bucket of pig's blood at Sunnydale High.

He wasn't upset about the Prom or even that depressed at the idea of not going. In all honesty, the Prom itself was a non-issue for him. What it meant, what not going to this dance represented, was a whole different issue altogether. It wasn't as if he didn't want to not go, he just didn't want to deal with everything that went with going. Finding a date was next to impossible, considering the pool of woman he knew were taken or would either laugh at him or beat on him if he asked. Oddly, he was still back and forth on which one of the aforementioned choices Faith and Cordelia would do to him and decided that it was best not to find out.

Even if he could get someone to go with him and take away some of the loser factor of showing up alone, it still meant dealing with the people there. Outside of his group of friends, Xander had pretty much pulled away from anyone else he knew, even on a passing level. It wasn't done purposely, but since he wasn't really showing up to classes, and the only time he seemed to even be at the school anymore was to either train or research, those people he had once knew were pretty much out of his life. They didn't mean it any more than he did, but without a reason to interact, a daily reminder of who he was, people had put him out of their minds. Sure, there were rumors going around about a drug habit, or that he had joined some weird religious cult, but nothing else was really said about him. Xander couldn't help but wonder if there was a bit of the ol' Sunnydale syndrome that made people ignore him now. After all, those were also the same rumors that people had passed around about Buffy when she had run off to L.A. Maybe "drug rehab" was another version of "gangs on PCP". Either way, it didn't really make him feel like showing up.

He knew that Buffy meant well. They were even having a rare normal hang out, in the daytime no less, today. She was determined to make him go, even if she had to drag him there and nail his feet to the dance floor to do it, it seemed. Xander knew that she only wanted the best for him, for all of her friends, and that she wanted him to enjoy the night along with everyone else, but it didn't change the fact he was set against it.

"I can make googol-y eyes at Angel and still make sure you're having fun. I am the Queen of Multitasking," Buffy said with mock haughtiness before saying, "Come on, give me one good reason why not."

"Does not wanting to count?"

"I said a _good_ reason," she huffed. "Really, come on. You, me, and Willow talked about going to the Prom together almost all of last year, what changed?"

Stopping, Xander gave her a look. "I'm going assume you meant that in the non-literal sense, right?"

Sighing, she stopped and turned to face him. "This is supposed to be a big deal for us, but you keep shooting it down like it's the worst idea ever."

"Yeah, well, maybe I've got some bigger things to deal with than some dance," Xander muttered quietly, his thoughts suddenly turning dark.

Regretting the words almost before they left his mouth, Xander braced himself for the oncoming assault of one of Buffy's moods. He hadn't meant to, but he was pretty sure she would think he was attacking her with the way he was speaking and her Slayer-ness or something would kick in.

Surprisingly, the verbal attack never came. Oh, Buffy certainly had bristled at his words, but her mood quickly shifted. If she had wanted to go off on him, she bit her tongue. Instead, she looked at him softly, almost sad. It was enough to make his own bitter thoughts disappear as quickly as Buffy's defensive mode had.

"Uh…Buff, you alright there? You're looking at me like I'm a kicked puppy," Xander said confused.

"No, it's just…" Buffy bit her lip, struggling to find the right words. "It's just that I know where you've been, where you are."

Feeling his mood return as dark thoughts entered into his head, Xander opened his mouth to respond with a particularly snarky remark, only to shut it again. Buffy wasn't being patronizing or trying to belittle him and she certainly didn't deserve his attitude. It didn't matter what he was thinking or what depressive feelings he was currently having, none of his friends deserved to have him take it out on them. Giles would probably say he was growing up, but Xander didn't want to think about that at the moment, along with everything else. He was depressed enough as it was.

"I know what it feels like. To feel like nothing matters anymore, that…_this_ is all you'll ever do with your life, and you start to wonder what the point of everything else," Buffy continued.

"You're not wrong," he told her, surprised by the sudden dryness in his throat.

Tilting her head off to the side, she walked off the path and onto the grass and out of the way of anyone. Following her, Xander knew that she wanted to have this conversation with as much privacy as they could get at the moment, which wasn't much considering it was day time and they were in the park, out in the open.

Finding a bench out of the way, they both sat down, rather heavily on Xander's part.

"So what has you wanting to be all Mister Hideaway all of a sudden?" Buffy asked. "I mean, you've been pulling away the past few weeks, more so than usual. You started stepping away from the school thing, which I don't get, not completely, but Giles said that you've stopped training as hard as you used to. I mean, we haven't even sparred that much since you got out of the hospital."

Sighing, Xander shook his head. "I know, I know. I need to get back into it. Things have just been…"

"A little wonky?"

"Yeah, you could say that," he replied with a snort.

"So, you gonna tell me what's going on or do you want me to grab Willow and double team you?"

"You really want me to answer that?"

"You can tell how nice I'm being since I won't hit you till after we're done talking," Buffy told him serenely. "Come on, what's the what, Xander. Not to sound worried but-"

"But you're worried, I get it." Running a hand through his hair, he said, "It's nothing. I mean, it's really not a big deal. Compared to everything else, this is about a two on the 'Big Deal' scale. I mean, come on! Vampires, demons, and the Apocalypse? Those are way more important things, right?"

"Well, I don't know. It might help if you actually said what it is that's been bothering you."

Pausing for a moment, Xander looked off in the distance, trying to get the words right. It was hard enough talking to someone, anyone, about what he was feeling, and he didn't want to come off sounding like a complete idiot.

"You're right. I've been slacking when it comes to training. The whole dropping out of school thing, while making perfect sense to the Avatar in me, doesn't exactly do wonders for my social life."

"Wait, you're upset because you don't go out more?"

"Yes, well, no. It's just…before, when we used to go out to the Bronze—"

"You mean when you still actually _went_ with us?"

Ignoring her, he said, "When we would go, sure, it was mostly just us, but I still knew people there. I grew up with these people. A lot of us were in the same grade school together. Now…now I go there and it's like I'm this completely different person. Sure, they recognize me, but none of them say anything. All those rumors and some well ingrained Sunnydale survival instincts keep them away from me. There's no reason for me to do anything like the Prom anymore. You guys don't need mopey Xander along with you, dragging everyone down. It's supposed to be a special night, something to remember and enjoy. I won't do that to you guys.

"I just…I feel like there isn't anything here for me anymore. Like whatever happened, it took away whatever bit of a life I had. And I didn't even have that much of a life to begin with! Sure, some of it was my fault. I threw myself into the training and into this whole Avatar."

Chancing a look over at Buffy, Xander was more than a little shocked by what he saw. She wasn't looking at him with sadness or shock. There wasn't agreement or even disagreement on her face. Above everything else, Buffy looked wary. She was giving him a sideways glance and her body was tense. It was a little disconcerting to have her look at him this way, especially since he wasn't sure what it was that seemed to put her off this much.

The sadness and fear that he had been feeling faded away as he caught Buffy's eye. If Xander hadn't been so sure that he was mistaken, he would have sworn that she was sizing him up a little, assessing him like she would a threat. But, that couldn't possibly be right. That wasn't just crazy, that was a lock him up with a straight jacket kind of crazy.

Blinking, some of that look faded from her eyes, only to be replaced with hard determination.

"Xander," Buffy said, her voice making it clear that whatever she was about to say was important and that there was no arguing with her and that to do so would only be inviting pain. "You're going to go to Prom. You're going to go with me and Willow, and you're going to have fun. You'll dance, you'll enjoy yourself, and most importantly, you won't be sitting at home wallowing alone, got it?"

"Um…yay?" Xander said.

Her features lost their edge and this time when she spoke, there was a softness to her words. "We both know what it's like, what happens when something completely out of your control comes along takes your life from you. But you can't let it. Believe me, I've been there, you know I've been there.

"After the Master…killed me, when I came back, I was lost. I thought, 'Well, this is it. It really has taken everything from me now, so what's the point?' But it hadn't, not really. I was a complete mess at the time, and it took all of you nearly getting killed, but I realized that I still had you guys with me. It sounds sappy, but having all of you guys in my life let me know that it was OK, that I still had something that was mine that it couldn't take away from me unless I let it."

Looking down at his feet, Xander couldn't help but feel worse. Buffy was right. He still had people in his life that cared about him even if he had pulled away from everyone for a bit. But, the thing that still bothered him, the thing he couldn't talk to Buffy about, or anyone really, was his fear of how they would act if they learned the truth. Faith had shown him that the others were only being nice about what he could do, hiding their own fear and worry from him. So what would they say if they knew that he had been holding back this whole time? Would they ignore him? Would Giles actually try to kill him? Would Buffy?

No, he couldn't talk about that.

Putting on a fake half smile, Xander waggled his eyebrows a bit. "So, when you say that I get to go with you and Willow…"

"And now I'm done being mature," Buffy said slapping his arm with slightly more force than was necessary.

Wincing at the hit, Xander's smile became real. The pain didn't make him happy, but the ease that he had with Buffy did. Willow was his best friend, and always would be his best friend, no matter what happened between them, but Buffy was in that same category even if he did sometimes have a few illicit thoughts about her. Granted, he had those same thoughts about pretty much any female he found even vaguely attractive, but the meaning was the same. It's also why he refused to talk to her about the other things that were bothering him. He didn't want to see that look in her eyes if she found out just what he could do.

"Want to keep walking?" he asked.

Frowning, she got up. "Might as well."

After a few minutes of walking, making sure they kept well enough away from the destroyed area of the park, Buffy said, "You're going to need a date."

"What?" Xander asked, his brain trying to catch up with what she said. "A date? Why do I need a date? Why can't I just go stag?"

"Xander, you're going to the Prom and you're going to have a date. You can't go alone! It's…it's not how these things work!"

"You just said I could go with you and Willow!"

"Well, you can go with me, Willow, and your date." Pausing in thought for a moment, she added, "And a tux."

He wanted to argue, but he knew it was pointless. There wasn't any getting out of this, short of running and hiding 'til Prom was over. But, if he did that, he might as well hide for the rest of his life, considering what Buffy and Willow would do to him when they found him. So, with shoulders slumped, he shook his head in defeat.

"Where am I supposed to find a date?"

"You worry about the tux and let me worry about the date."

"OK, that's where I draw the line," Xander told her. "There is no way I'm letting you set me up with someone. That's just…pathetic!"

"Do you know someone who isn't either me or Willow who would go with you?" Buffy asked, raising an eyebrow.

Opening his mouth, Xander had nothing to say and promptly shut it. Sighing, he said, "Um…I'll get back to you on that."

"That's what I thought." Grinning proudly at having proved her point, she told him, "Don't worry, it won't be pathetic, trust me."

He did trust her, he really did. Xander would follow Buffy to hell and back - literally.

But this was different. This wasn't some demon or something as straight forward as that. This was a High School Prom. Besides, he _really_ didn't like the look in her eyes at the moment.

* * *

Prom was only a couple days away at this point and Xander's patience was beginning to run a bit thin. Between Buffy and Willow harping on him to get ready and be prepared, he was ready to run screaming towards the hills. He knew they meant well, but it was driving him crazy. They were so gung ho on the whole Prom thing that it was bordering on overkill. Sure, they were girls and more prone to that sort of thing, but how many conversations could they really have about what they were wearing?

Finally, after days of being beaten into submission, he finally relented and was now tux shopping. The one he had from Homecoming was gone now, along with everything else that was in his old home. He would have loved to save his money and it definitely could be better spent on something, anything, other than some piece of clothing he would only wear once, maybe twice at most.

At least no one was spending money on a limo this time around. Homecoming had taught them that it was safer to drive themselves everywhere. No one was going to get the drop on them that way, not again. They would, of course, figure out new and exciting ways to either grab them or take them out, but no longer would it be through a limo. That was one thing Xander would be certain of. Though without a limo, it meant that he had to come up with a way to drive his date to and from the dance. The keys to his Uncle Rory's car, like his old tux, had been lost to the fire as well.

Grumbling to himself about the injustice of being able to basically fly, but not letting him take anyone else with him, really, Xander almost missed catching Cordelia in a shop window. He didn't recognize the name of the store, but it looked like one of those over the top, expensive boutiques that he knew she loved to shop at. He really should remember the name – after all, it wasn't as if Sunnydale was overflowing with those types of shops - but he basically tuned Cordelia out whenever she started talking about those places.

Changing direction, Xander headed into the store. He hadn't spoken to Cordelia since she had visited him in hospital. It wasn't as if he had been avoiding her, but she was keeping herself clear from the everyday life and death situations their group usually found themselves in, which no one could fault her for. She hadn't disassociated herself from them completely, but she had distanced herself some. If it kept her safer, then good for her. Still, he didn't want to be the type of person to simply walk past her and not say something, even if they were on slightly shaky ground, still.

"So, is there something special about this dress or do you just grope every one you like?" Xander asked coming up beside the girl, unintentionally throwing out the barb.

Surprised, Cordelia quickly let go of the dress she had been holding on to and staring at, turning to him. She recovered fast enough that Xander almost missed the worried and embarrassed expression that flashed across her face.

"Xander! Well, I, uh, can't be too quick with these decisions. Last thing I want is something tacky and distasteful all over me…again," she shot back, no longer looking at him, but back at the dress.

Despite the remark, he smiled a bit. "Well, I'm sure with this one you won't have to worry about it being on you for long."

Before Cordelia is able to respond, one of the sales girls walked up, looking more than a tiny bit annoyed. "Is this a customer or a friend?"

"Uh, friend…maybe?" Xander says confused. If this was some new sales pitch, he wasn't exactly sure what they were going for with it. Maybe she thought that he was with Cordelia and, therefore, wasn't worth the time to talk to if he wasn't the one buying anything. Rude, but then again, they could afford to be with the prices they charged.

Frowning, somehow managing to be even more upset, the salesgirl said, "Look, you better get back to work and quit goofing off. Mrs. Finkel so has it in for you."

Still confused, Xander glanced around and, sure enough, an older woman, the manager he assumed, was looking at Cordelia with such disapproval that even Xander started to feel as if he should be doing some work at the moment.

"Well, who says she can't do both?" Xander asked, looking at the sales girl questioningly while talking loud enough for the manager to hear. "The only reason I even came in this place was because Cordelia works here. Otherwise, I wouldn't have even considered buying a tux from this place."

Blinking back some of her surprise, the sales girl's only response was to nod her head before moving on. The manager, while still not looking happy, no longer looked quite as upset as she did before and went back to whatever it was she was doing before.

"A tux? Since when could afford a tux from this place?" she whispered harshly to him, dragging him forcefully over to the menswear section.

"Well, maybe not a whole tux," he replied quietly. Seeing a price tag on one of the suits, his eyes grew wide. "OK, maybe I could afford a shirt button. Do you guys sell buttons?"

Groaning in frustration, Cordelia closed her eyes. "Honestly, why do I even bother?"

Not wanting to make her upset, he dropped his voice a little and pretended to be looking at a few of the suits and tuxedos they had out. "So, I'm guessing you work here, but the thing I can't get is, why?"

"I'm trying to buy a dress, alright?" she whispered back at him.

"But…don't you already own every dress?"

The smile on her face, due to her manager being nearby again, was a sharp contrast to her tone of voice. "I have _nothing_, alright? We lost _everything_. Everything's been taken away because Daddy made a little mistake on his taxes…for the last twelve years. I can't go to any of the colleges that accepted me and I can't stay home because, guess what? We don't have one, anymore."

Raising his eyebrows in shock, Xander tried to come up with something appropriate to say, only to come up with, "Uh…wow."

This was, apparently, not the right choice.

"Yeah, it's just _great_, isn't it? You can go run along to all of your friends and tell them how Cordy finally got hers. How I have to work part time and use all of the money just to buy some stupid dress, on layaway, that I probably won't be able to afford anyway. Oh, don't forget to mention the name tag!"

Holding up a hand to stop her, Xander opened his mouth, but never got the chance to try and calm his ex down.

The sound of the window shattering grabbed everybody's attention, at least for a split second. The huge weird looking dog creature that crashed through the storefront soon took its place as the most interesting thing in the store. It landed with a throaty growl, its eyes darting back and forth before setting its sights on Cordelia. With a snarl, it rushed forward, ready to tear into his prey.

Grabbing her by the arm, Xander pulled Cordelia out of the way, getting her out of danger and closer to the door. Without the room to maneuver, the dog thing didn't have a chance to change course and get his main target, though it didn't seem to mind much. Now, with its eyes set on Xander, it barked once, the sound high pitched and odd considering the size of the thing.

Waiting 'til the last second, letting the creature get as close as possible, Xander dipped forward, ducking his head as much as he could while keeping his form perfect. Swinging his one arm in a low arc above his head, he created an air current that picked the dog thing up off its paws and sent it sailing over him and crashing into the wall behind him. Following through on the move, Xander turned with the simple Airbending throw and faced the odd looking creature that seemed hell-bent on attacking someone.

As it stood up, shaking off the toss, Xander got a good look as what it was he was facing. In a way, it kind of reminded him of a wolf-monkey that Aang had seen near the Northern Water Tribe. Provided, of course, you took a wolf-monkey, gave it mess of more fur, grew it up about three more inches, and then sent it through the ol' Hellmouth blender. Still, it was a close enough match that Xander couldn't help himself.

"You know, Fido. I'm sure if you play dead I could find something that taste just like Arctic Hen for you," he told the creature with a slight smirk. "It shouldn't be that hard. Everything tastes like Arctic Hen."

It didn't go over so well with the dog, if the growl it gave was any indication. Unlike its bark, which had sort of hurt Xander's ears at the time, the creature's growl was deep and reverberated inside the young man's bones. He had felt worse, but the feeling put his teeth on edge.

Dropping the small smile, Xander set himself against the wolf-monkey and got into a stance. The thing continued to growl at him, scratching its paws against the floor and tearing up carpet with its claws. When Xander was sure it was going to lash out at him, when the thing seemed poised to strike, something happened that changed its mind. It wasn't a long thought on the demented, mutated, demonic wolf-monkey's part, Xander realized. One moment it was ready to attack him and rip him to shreds, just like the carpet, and the next, it spotted a guy who had been trying on a tux who was trying to sneak out towards the door. It took no time for the creature to change targets and bolt towards the defenseless kid, who Xander swore had been in his English class last year.

Even with the dog thing being so close to him, Xander hadn't a chance to stop it. His brain couldn't switch gears fast enough to go from defending himself and attacking the creature to simply defending someone else. He was able to do it fast, but not fast enough, unfortunately. The thing rushed past him and lunged at the kid in formal wear, earning a scream of surprise from his victim that turned into one of terror and pain as it ripped into him.

As quick as possible, Xander turned and let loose a blast of controlled air aimed for the creature's side, knocking it away from the poor kid he was mauling and sending it rolling out the shattered window. With a whimpering growl, it stood and made off at a limping run.

Xander could have gone after the thing, it was injured after all, but he couldn't. The creature probably wouldn't go after anyone else till it found a safe spot to hide till it healed up. The guy bleeding all over the floor was another matter altogether. With all the blood, it was hard to see where he was actually injured, let alone what to do to stop it. Christ, the thing had only been on him for a second or two. How in the hell did it manage to do this much damage?

Looking around, Xander was shocked to see Cordelia still in the store, though she had retreated a few more feet back and was holding a piece of the shattered window out in front of her. Unsurprisingly, she was the only other person left in the store.

"Cordy!" Xander shouted as he knelt down in front of the injured shopper, gingerly running his hands over his chest, checking for serious wounds. "Get me some water!"

"What? Xander, the guy needs a doctor, not a drink!" she cried running over to the phone.

"Damn it, just get me some water! I can fix this, I can help."

There were numerous cuts on his chest, but most of them weren't deep. Well, not deep enough to be life threatening, at least at the moment. He quickly moved his hands up to the man's neck and found a large gash by the left carotid artery that was spilling a lot of blood at an sickeningly fast pace. Ignoring the slightly queasy feeling he was getting, Xander grabbed a shirt off a rack and pressed it firmly against the man's neck.

"I need that water, Cordy, now!"

With the store's phone in her hand, Cordelia rushed over to Xander, blanched at all of the blood, and practically shoved a bottle of water into his free hand, before retreating a few steps and talking to the 9-1-1 operator.

He tried to be quick about it, but the blood on his hands made it impossible to twist the cap off of the bottle. After the third try, the bottle slipped clear from his hands and rolled across the floor.

"Damn it!"

Frustrated and angry, Xander put one hand back on the man's neck, trying to stem the flow of blood. With his free hand, he swiped at the bottle, sending a thin arc of air out, cleanly slicing through the plastic. Pulling the water towards him, he lifted up the shirt from the man's neck and was greeted with even more blood coming from the wound. It was an odd thing, but in that split second, Xander's attention seemed to focus on the young man's face. Surprisingly, there was very little blood on his face, only a few splashes of the red liquid had managed to hit him above the neck. The dark color of the blood only served to contrast the stark white tone that had crept into his skin. There wasn't a lot of time left.

Time moved back to normal pace, and Xander quickly bent the water onto the gash, hoping that he would be able to at least close the wound enough to keep the kid hanging on 'til the paramedics arrived. He knew that he didn't have a chance in the world of saving him outright, not with only going off the nebulous like memories of past Avatars and the severity of the injury. Still, he could do something, he had to do something. What was the point of having these abilities if he couldn't help people?

The water glowed and swirled. Xander willed it to work, forcing the skin to repair itself and the blood closest to the wound to go back into the body. It was working, he knew it, but he didn't let up. He needed to keep it going, to keep healing until the last possible moment. If he stopped or let his concentration slip, it would all be for nothing. He couldn't let that happen.

Someone started shaking his shoulder, but he couldn't spare them a glance and tried shrugging them off. Whoever it was, was persistent and grabbed him by both shoulders, pulling him back and off the kid's neck.

"Xander," Cordelia said, her voice soft, but firm. "Xander, stop."

"No! Get off me!" Xander wriggled out of her grasp and tried to start the healing process again.

"Xander, just…stop." When she touched him, she didn't bother trying to pull him away, but simply placed her hand on his shoulder. "He's gone."

Glancing at the kid's face, Xander saw what she meant. His eyes were glassy, open and staring blankly at nothing. His head was lolled to one side and his mouth was half open, keeping with the surprised look that he had on his face when the creature had attacked. After a moment, Xander pulled his hands away letting the water splash uselessly to the floor. The amount of blood loss had been too much. Xander noticed that that tear in the neck looked significantly better, which would be hard to explain to anyone that asked. But with this town, no one would really be looking into this too hard in the first place.

"Xander, come on," Cordelia said gently. Well, gently for her anyway.

She was right. They needed to get out of here. Dealing with the cops in Sunnydale was always a lesson in patience and incompetence, and the Scooby Gang had learned long ago that if you didn't have to be on the scene when they showed up, it was best not to. No one would go looking for them, no one ever did.

Xander let himself be pulled up and out of the store. He felt Cordelia guiding him, muttering something under her breath about being too good for her own good. Despite himself, Xander found himself smiling softly. He knew that she was shaken up by the attack, and seeing a classmate mauled to death affected her, but she was still Cordelia. She didn't buckle under pressure or bow to her own pesky emotional problems, not in public, anyway. Her abrasiveness and what some would consider tactlessness was merely her way of dealing with the world head on. He liked that about her.

"Are you even listening to me?"

"Huh? What?" Xander asked stupidly.

Rolling her eyes, Cordelia said, "It's a wonder how you ever manage to make it out of your bed in the morning with how stupid you are. I said, we need to get off the street and get you into a change of clothes. While everyone in this town may ignore a lot, I doubt you walking around covered in blood is one of those things."

"Yeah, right," he replied slowly. He looked around for a moment, getting his bearings. "The school's closer than the apartment. Besides, we have to head there, anyway. Let Buffy and Giles know and all that."

"Doofus, hello! You can't go walking into the school like that either. You're already on Snyder's list, you really want to make everything worse?"

"I can get in without being seen. The library windows are only ten feet high or so and the back one is easy enough to get open," he told her, dismissing her concern.

"And if you get caught in the library like that, you'll what? Send some glowing magic water after them or something?" Cordelia put her hands on her hips, giving Xander a hard glare. "You really want to risk Giles or Buffy or _me_ with having the cops called 'cause you were too busy to take ten minutes to go wash yourself off?"

Looking down, Xander shook his head. "No, you're right. I can't go in there like this. I don't need the apartment, though." Looking around again, he spotted an alleyway and started for it. "Just, uh, give me a minute, will ya?"

"Oh no. You're not leaving me out here in the open by myself. What if that thing comes back? It was staring at me at first! What if it still wants me?" Cordelia quickly caught up to him.

"Cordy, that wolf-monkey wasn't looking for you, just an easy meal and despite rumors to the opposite, you're anything but easy."

"You got that right!"

Smirking again, Xander went on. "It's looking for something that won't put up a fight. Why do you think it left me alone? The second after we started fighting, it went for an easier target."

Shaking her head, Cordelia frowned a little. "Poor Mark. He had such good taste, too."

"Mark?" Xander asked walking further into the alley, scouting around to make sure they weren't about to disturb some sleeping demon or creature.

"Mark Holland, he's in our year. His parents are in the same Country Club my parents' are- _were_ in. Aura's going to be so disappointed. He was taking her to Prom."

"Yeah, I'm sure the victim here is Aura," Xander said shaking his head a bit.

"I mean it! Mark was a shoe in for Prom King. I mean, that tux he was buying was one of the best in the store. Not that it will do him any good, now." Pausing, Cordelia looked at Xander, eyeing him critically.

"No, I guess not," he replied somberly. Catching her eye, Xander gave her a confused look. "Uh, something wrong?"

"He completely ignored you."

"Mark? Well, I didn't really know him."

"No, not Mark, you moron! I meant that dog thing," she said exasperated. "You were holding it off, which I admit was impressive, especially for you. But it didn't just want something else, it ignored you completely the second it saw Mark."

"So, what? You think someone sent it after him?"

"Don't be stupid. What kind of freak would want to go after someone like Mark Holland? He's more normal than anyone I've ever met. His parents own a house in Martha's Vineyard for crying out loud!"

"Yes and we all know that _normal_ people never turn out to be anything, but normal."

"Please, with their portfolio? You'd have a hard time concealing the weirdness this town usually brings in." Pursing her lips in thought, Cordelia went on. "Either the monster had good taste and could pick out a great suit from a tacky dud, or Mark Holland wasn't as squeaky clean as we thought."

Eyes wide, Xander's brain latched onto her idea. "And considering this is the Hellmouth and all, what's more likely? Some random or scheduled attack of some guy in formal wear, or someone gunning for people dressed up with Prom right around the corner?"

"We can never have just one, normal school function, can we?" Cordelia said matching his own wide eyed expression.

Spotting the water on the ground, Xander pulled it towards him, separating the muck and dirt from it, leaving it clean, or at least cleaner, before using it to wash and pull the blood from his skin and clothing. It was an odd feeling, basically peeling the blood off of him by mixing it with the water before bending it off his body, but it was quick and did the job. When he was finished, he looked as good as new.

Catching Cordelia's surprised and, if he guessed right, impressed look, Xander ignored it, nodded his head. "Alright, let's head to the library. Time to ruin everyone's plans…again."

* * *

No one's night was getting ruined.

Buffy didn't care who or what she had to hunt down, beat up, or drag kicking and screaming into the light, she wasn't going to let one more thing go wrong for her friends. They deserved more than that, they deserved better. While they may not always be able to get it and sometimes life took a turn for the worse for them when it came to big events, she would be damned if they couldn't have at least this one night. Her friends will dance, they will smile, and they will be happy, damn it, even if she won't be there.

When Xander and Cordelia came to the Library talking about some kind of wolf-monkey, as Xander put it, though Giles said it was a Hellhound, crashing into April Fool's, her own plans for the Prom had been thrown out the window and into a giant mulcher. She should have expected it. After all, this had been the year of realizing that Buffy doesn't get one perfect High School moment. Still, a part of her was hoping that it would all work out. It was the main reason why she forbid anyone from telling Angel about it 'til he arrived at the dance later. Giles would tell Angel that Buffy was running late, but that she would be there soon enough, and hopefully, she actually would be. If not, well, it's not like she was expecting it to go right or anything.

She even made Xander, who was dead set against having her go off on her own, promise that he would go to the Prom. It had been a hard sell, but she did it. Mainly through a combination of guilt and threats of violence, but she did it. Besides, she went through a lot of trouble to get him a date, more trouble than she probably would have for her own had she been single, and she wanted him to enjoy himself. Buffy wanted all of them to be happy, too, but with everything going on, everything that might be going on, she wanted her Xander shaped friend to be happy for even just a moment.

Taking out the paper from her pocket, Buffy double checked the address on it to make sure she was at the right house. After a short discussion of who could be breeding a Hellhound and, following Xander and Cordelia's thought about it being for the thing to attack the Prom, Tucker Wells made the short list for people who could and would do it. Willow had grabbed his address from the school's files and, after ordering everyone else to get ready for the dance, she went there - only to have it be a bust. Thinking about it, she remembered what Giles mentioned about the thing needing brains to eat and made her way over to the meat packing plant and, with some finagling, found out that Tucker ordered cow brains and got the address to where they were delivered. It killed too many hours, but she was finally heading in the right direction, which was why she wanted to make sure she got the right place. The last thing she needed was to waste more time. Getting this far had already taken the few days leading up to the Prom and time wasn't on their side.

After double checking the address and making sure the coast was clear, Buffy forced the front door open and went inside. Nothing jumped out at her, which was both a good and bad sign. Either they didn't know she was there, or everyone was gone already. Straining her ears, she could make out a few muffled sounds coming from somewhere downstairs. Maybe she hadn't missed her chance to stop this before it started after all.

Taking a few steps inside, Buffy stopped. Something was off, something didn't feel right. There was a stillness in the air that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She waited, but nothing happened. Grabbing a knife tucked in her belt, she started forward again, moving slowly and checking each and every shadow as she went, just in case.

The place had only one front room and a door in the back which, if what she was hearing was right, led to a basement. There was a chair and a desk to the far wall by the door littered with papers, notebooks, paper plates and empty soda cans. The floor wasn't any better, with piles of pizza boxes and take out cartons all over the place. The smell was horrible and she swore she saw a rat or two dart back into hiding when she got too close. If she wasn't going to hurt Wells for the Hellhounds, she might just do it for making her come into a place like this.

Creeping up to the door, she waited a second to hear for anyone on the other side of it and, once satisfied no one was directly behind it or near it, she opened it gently.

Buffy would have kept the smell of that first room and stayed there happily in exchange for the stench that hit her after opening the door. The moment the door opened, the stench was like a physical presence. She was no stranger to it, the scent of decay, blood, and shit, but that never made it any easier. Bracing herself, holding the knife at the ready, Buffy ventured further downstairs into the basement that reeked of death.

The basement was a complete mess, much like the room upstairs, only instead of being decorated in garbage, it was as if a demonic pet store exploded. An empty cage sat by a TV that had been turned over onto the floor. Chains and whips hung on the wall, though there was an empty spot in one of the spaces that drew her attention. The missing chain wasn't anywhere that she could see. For that matter, there wasn't a body either and that stench wasn't coming from nowhere.

"Finally! I was starting to think none of you would ever show up!"

Buffy spun around, knife raised in a defensive position. Her eyes went wide, her grip tightening around the knife and her body tensing. Standing in the doorway, smiling brightly, was Vampire Willow.

She was in a long black dress that went past her knees. Like the corset Buffy had seen her in before, the dress looked too tight for her to breathe in, not that the vampire needed to. In her hands was a length of chain, the one missing from the wall. Blood and thicker bits covered about half of it and left a red streak on the floor from where she was dragging it behind her. The smile on her face was disturbing. Despite knowing better, Buffy would have said that she was actually happy to see her. The disturb-o-meter went up a few notches since Buffy had seen that smile on the real Willow numerous times before.

Catching her eye as Buffy looked her over Vamp Willow's smile grew wider. Spreading her arms down in front of her, she said, "Do you like it? I wanted to wear something special for the big night."

"What are you doing here?" Buffy demanded, edging her free hand towards the stake in her coat pocket.

"I know what you're gonna do, and trust me, it'll be fun, but are you sure you want to do it right now?"

"I'm pretty sure I do."

Shaking her head, Vamp Willow stepped away from the door way, giving Buffy a clear view of the small room behind her. Tied to a chair inside was something that she could only assume had once been Tucker Wells. It was impossible to tell at this point what with all of the blood and torn flesh, but part of Buffy hoped that it was Tucker, if only because if it wasn't, she couldn't imagine who else that could be or what had happened to the young man. While the badly beaten, tortured, and, hopefully dead body in the back room was certainly a sight to see, she focused more on the three empty cages that were in there as well.

"Neat, huh?" Willow said perkily. "I mean, not only did he raise _four_ Hellhounds on his own, but he trained them to attack people at the Prom. That was impressive for a human, really. Once I learned about it, I just had to meet him," she gushed. Moving the chain a bit, her smile turned dark. "But, like most humans, he was really only good for one thing.

Still, the Hellhounds were ready to go, so…well, I let them. Don't worry, I told them to wait 'til you got there before they start in on the real fun, but you know how animals can be." She shrugged before smiling wide again. "Can you imagine it? All that screaming? All that bloodshed? God, I wish I could see the look on Xander's face!"

Buffy made up her mind. She couldn't fight Vamp Willow and go after the Hellhounds. She didn't expect them to hold off even if Vamp Willow had actually told them to do so, and that's if they understood as well. At the moment, the Hellhounds were the biggest problem. She didn't know how long she would waste fighting with Vamp Willow, but every minute spent here was another minute the hounds were getting closer to the school and the students. She hated doing it. She wanted nothing more than to stake the evil bitch in front of her, but she knew it wouldn't be an easy task. And while she was here, mixing it up with the skanked out version of her friend, people would be getting ripped apart by the Hellhounds.

"This isn't over," Buffy ground out.

The smile on Willow's face now showed teeth, her eyes flashing dangerously. "Oh, sweetie, it's only just begun. _Trust_ me."

Cursing silently, once again leaving Vamp Willow alive, she bolted up the stairs and out the door. While not exactly on the other side of town, Tuckers little pet storage place wasn't near the school, either. Depending on when Vamp Willow set the Hellhounds free, she still might not be able to get to the Prom in time to stop them. From how Giles spoke of them, one Hellhound was bad when it was on its own. Four of them, all trained to attack anyone in formal wear would bring chaos to the school dance.

Determined not to let that happen, Buffy leapt over a hedge and started cutting through backyards, pouring on the speed. She'd be damned if she didn't make it in time.

Even with her Slayer speed and endurance, Buffy still took a good twenty-five minutes before she got close enough to see the school. Breathing hard despite all of her training, she pushed herself even more. The music from the gym was loud enough that she could hear it from blocks away and luckily it didn't seem mixed in with any screams. Granted, that didn't mean much of anything since she might only be a few feet or yards behind them. That distance could make a huge difference.

She spotted a couple heading for the gym doors and, off to the side, a little bit ahead of her, a dark shape moving towards them. Despite the burning in her legs and lungs, Buffy started to cross the distance. Still, it was gaining on the unsuspecting couple and would be able to severely hurt one of them, at least, if not kill them both before she managed to run the thing to the ground.

In a desperate attempt to keep it from getting to the boy and girl, Buffy leapt forward and tackled the Hellhound, surprising it. They rolled for a moment, Buffy keeping her hands and face away from the creature's jaws. The thing was strong and without a weapon in hand, Buffy couldn't hope to win a fight with it, so as they slowed down, Buffy used the momentum to toss the Hellhound away, placing herself between it and the school.

Getting onto one knee, crouching slightly, Buffy took her knife out again and faced the Hellhound. "All right, ugly, no chance you'd be willing to roll over and play dead while I stab you, huh?"

The creature growled at her, kicking up dirt as it clawed at the ground. Three more growls joined it, and rest of the Hellhounds melted out of the shadows and stood off against Buffy.

"All right, I guess that was a stupid question to ask."

Tensing, trying to form a plan of attack that didn't involve her being used as a demonic chew toy, Buffy slid forward, trying to keep all of them in sight. The four hounds followed her movements, each of them taking their own step forward, snarling menacingly.

Just when the tension seemed as if it was about to break in violent and bloody ways, the Hellhounds, as one, turned to the left and ran off. Buffy stood watching them, completely confused. They weren't going as fast as Buffy had seen the first move, and they didn't seem to be running for cover. She watched them stop, turn, and give her a pointed glare.

"OK, definitely not retreating," Buffy murmured. Raising an eyebrow, she said louder, sure that the hounds could hear her, "You can't be serious? You expect me to follow you?"

The Hellhounds growled, almost happily, and started heading back in the direction of the school. Shooting forward, Buffy made to cut them off, only to find them changing direction, yet again and going away from the school.

It was stupid. It was completely idiotic and went against every fiber of sanity in her brain, but Buffy was actually following the hounds. She shouldn't be doing it, but if she tried to let them go off on their own, they went for the school. If she went to attack them, they would turn and head off away from the school. These weren't the type of creatures to have a game plan beyond the simple bite and tear with a few claws thrown in. What they were doing now wasn't something that seemed their style. But they were soldiers, which meant they could be trained. Tucker had proven that when he got them to attack anyone that was dressed for the Prom.

The only other person who had any contact with the Hellhounds, though, was Vampire Willow and why would she have her come out here when they were facing each other before? Then again, it wasn't as if the vampire was all there at times.

Wishing she had another choice, Buffy watched the hounds disappear around the corner of the school, heading towards the parking lot. Not completely losing all of her survival instincts, she made the turn wide, not giving the hounds a chance to jump her, should they be waiting. Of course, since she was spending the entire time watching the ground for the low moving creatures, she almost didn't see the person she barreled into 'til it was too late. As it was, she only succeeded in not knocking into him, she couldn't help the man from falling over her foot and rolling end over end. Only after he turned the roll into a twisting mid air flip, did Buffy recognize the young man.

"Xander? What are you doing here?" Buffy demanded, her eyes darting around. Not waiting for a response, she said, "Never mind, there's no time."

On cue, the hounds let out a few howls and shrill sounding barks. Not wanting to let them get away or double back and head for the school, Buffy turned from Xander and started running in the direction the howls had been in. After a moment, Xander came up beside her, matching her pace easily.

"That sounds like more than just one. Jeez, how many did this kid make?" Xander asked, leaping over a parked car with ease as Buffy rolled over the front end.

"Four," she huffed, slightly miffed at how easy he was making it look.

"Four?" Xander exclaimed. "Man, I hope you gave him a good beating before you came out here. Peace and understanding be damned."

"I didn't get the chance," Buffy said, both turning another corner as the hounds started down a street that lead towards the outskirts of town. "Skank-o-vision Willow beat me there. She…she got to him first and set the Hellhounds free."

Xander didn't say anything, but Buffy could feel his mood shift. She would have loved to question it. His moods had been shifting rapidly as of late, but this wasn't the time or the place.

The Hellhounds started picking up their pace and started for the woods that bordered the one side of the town. The ground would get hilly if they followed, giving the hounds the high ground if they wanted, but this had a different feel than an ambush, at least not one as direct as that. The hounds were leading them here for a reason. Still, no sense in going in halfcocked.

Slowing to halt just outside the tree line, Buffy and Xander stared in the darkness, trying to make out any shapes that were out there.

"We need a plan," Buffy said, turning to Xander. "The hounds led us here for a reason and holy…" Buffy stopped talking as she finally got a good look at him. It wasn't that he looked particular good in the three piece tux, but not bad either. He stood tall, sure and confident in front of her. The only thing that ruined the image was the utterly confused look on his face as she stood there slacked jawed for a moment. It wasn't his dress that made her stop though, it was more that it dawned on her that Xander had been on his way to the dance.

Frowning at the fact that she had dragged him into this, despite her best efforts, she shook it off. There was nothing to be done about it now. Plus, if she was honest, she could use the backup. Even if Xander wasn't willing to use lethal force, he would still be able to watch her back and hold off anything that was waiting for them in the woods, hopefully, anyway.

"Nothing," she lied. "The hounds didn't run this way by mistake, they were leading me here for some reason. Keep your eyes open and if anything pops out, just…"

"Got it. Anything that looks unfriendly or demonic, I'll send it half way across town before it gets us," he told her.

"Any weapons on you?"

With a wry smile, he said, "Only the air around us and any water we find."

"Show off," Buffy said teasingly. Holding up the knife still in her hand, she added, "Guess I'll just have to do things the old-fashioned way."

Moving a few feet apart so nothing could get the drop on them at the same time, the two made their way into the forest. Only a few feet in and one of the Hellhounds appeared and growled for a moment, before trotting off to the right of them and further into the forest.

"Is it just me, or is following this thing a really stupid idea?" Xander asked.

"It's not just you," Buffy replied.

They followed to where the hound had gone, Xander backing up Buffy. There was a dense area of trees blocking their path with no way to go around it. Going through it seemed like a bad idea, but there wasn't much of a choice. Again, it seemed like too much effort to simply be done in an effort to kill her and, if it was, that usually meant that there would be something they could use against whoever set it up. One of the good things about going up against insane, megalomaniac type villains is that they tended to over think situations, leaving at least one thing that a person could use to exploit.

Once through the heavily wooded part that the hound had lead them to, Buffy and Xander found themselves in a small clearing surrounded on all sides by oaks and maple trees just as dense as the grouping they had fought through to get here. The four hounds stood in a row, sitting and growling at them, but not making a move to attack.

"Ooookkkaaaayyy," Xander drawled out. "That is just plain freaky."

"Really? They look kind of cute to me," a female voice called out. "I mean, that could just be me. My tastes have changed a bit recently."

It took Buffy a long moment before her brain told her who it was she was looking at. To her credit, it had been several months since she had seen the girl. Her hair was longer than it had been when they had last been together, and her eyes held a bit more weight to them as well as anger. Her clothes were like nothing she had ever seen the girl in before, which also made the identification a bit harder. Normally, you don't see people in a pink dress with blood splattered over the front of it. But, finally, she recognized Amy, as she stepped out from behind the trees walking over to the hounds, resting a hand on the one closest to her.

"Like the dress?" Amy said smirking. "I know, it's not really me, but on short notice it was the best I could do. Besides, I got a killer deal on it."

"Oh, God," Buffy whispered. "Amy…"

"Must be hard to recognize me without the tail and gray fur, isn't it?" Amy said heatedly.

"Wait, Amy? Amy, Amy? Amy's human? She sent the Hellhounds?" Xander asked looking between Buffy and Amy.

Snorting, Amy shook her head. "Man, what does she see in you? I mean, she always had a thing for you, but this is just sad."

"Huh?"

"Still, this should be fun," Amy said darkly. Her face shifted and the heavy forehead ridges and fangs of the demon within came through. Instead of the yellow eyes that all vampires showed, Amy's turned a dark, blood red color. It was enough of a difference for Buffy to know that something was different about her, more so than her simply being just a vampire, and she started to move to take her out before things got to messy.

Amy's free hand twisted out in front of her, pointed at Xander. A black lance of energy shot forward, hitting Xander in the chest, lifting him off of his feet and slamming him back several feet. Despite having been in motion and moving as fast as she could, she wasn't fast enough to stop the witch turned vampire.

Reaching out to grab the vampire's arm and stop whatever her next attack might be, Buffy was knocked down by one of the Hellhounds before she could latch onto her. Twisting out from under the hound's claws before it could do any damage, she made sure to hold onto her knife, cursing that she left her bag of weapons at her house. Three distinct growls only served to further her mental berating of herself. On top of the hound that had knocked her to the ground, two more had joined it, the fourth staying close to Amy, but watching Buffy carefully. The Hellhounds facing her formed a semi circle around her, blocking her from getting at Amy. And Xander, for that matter.

Chancing a glance at her friend, her heart skipped a beat as he saw him struggling on his knees. Amy was holding both hands up, muttering something under her breath as vines and tree roots wrapped themselves around Xander's body, trying to pin his limbs down and cutting him up in the process. Buffy knew that he needed to be able to move in order to defend himself. His bending wouldn't be worth a damn if he couldn't lift a hand to do anything. She needed to get to him and fast.

Unfortunately, she still had the three Hellhounds to deal with first.

Faking left, she went right, lashing out with a quick one-two kick to the closest hound's face, stunning it. The second lunged at her face, forcing Buffy to fall on her back, bringing her knife up and letting it drag across the underbelly of the beast as it sailed over her. It wasn't deep enough to gut the damn thing, but a fair amount of blood fell onto her and she was rewarded with a yelp from the hound and the sound of it crashing to the dirt behind her in pain.

She tried to get to her feet, but the third hound was on her before she could stand. Not wasting its chance, it immediately went to bite down on her neck, going for the kill. Not wanting to give up one of her only weapons, Buffy shoved her forearm into the creature's throat trying desperately to hold it off. She didn't have the leverage to choke it, but luckily, its own weight took care of that. Each time it tried to get closer, it would back off slightly as its airway became blocked. Unfortunately, each time it pushed down it also got a bit closer as her arm started to give out. As quick as she could manage, she plunged the knife into its side, eliciting a growling yelp. Twisting the blade, the hound dug its back paws into the dirt, desperately trying to back away. Having more problems than just the single Hellhound, Buffy let it go.

Flipping onto her feet, her face and hands hot from the fresh blood covering them, Buffy started in for Amy again. When the stunned Hellhound came for her, trying to sneak up from the side, Buffy didn't even slow her stride, burying the knife deep into its skull when it got close enough. It lost her the knife, but she couldn't afford to waste time with another scuffle. Amy had moved on from simply tying Xander up and was currently using the vines to bounce him around, slamming him into tree limbs, trunks and back onto the ground. He was conscious, but in pain and unable to focus on where anyone was.

"Lost your knife," Amy taunted, glancing at Buffy.

"I've always done my best work on the fly," she replied flippantly. Taking the stake out of her jacket, she said, "Besides, knife to the heart wouldn't really work on you anyway. This should do it though."

Amy chuckled. "Please, Buffy. This isn't a fair fight."

Buffy shrugged, mentally mapping out plans of attack. "One newbie vampire witch and two Hellhounds, one of which is whining on the floor back there against one pissed off Slayer? Maybe it isn't a fair fight, but hey, sucks to be you, anyway."

A strong pair of hands grabbed Buffy by the shoulders, gripped her hard and lifted her off the ground. Her assailant put her in a bear hug that was hard enough to make breathing difficult. Throwing her head back, breaking the nose of whoever was holding her with a satisfying crack. When she was dropped, she threw back her elbow, catching them in the face once more, before following it up with a spinning back fist, knocking her opponent to the floor and letting her face him. A vampire him to be exact, dressed in a bad leather vest without a shirt. It was all she let herself notice about him before she kicked him in the face as he struggled to get to his feet. She didn't have time to for him, not when he brought six more friends, all dressed in variations of the whole leather biker gang motif. She didn't know if groups of vampires really liked the whole dirty biker gang thing or if they simply kept turning regular bikers, but it wasn't really important at the matter.

Shaking her head, Amy twisted her hands sending Xander crashing painfully against a large tree before lifting him high into the air, almost ignoring Buffy. "Actually, it really doesn't.

"See, there really isn't a way out of this for you. Then again, this was never meant for you. Why she thought she needed all of this for Xander of all people…but, hey, this is still fun. As long as I don't kill Xander, I'm pretty sure she won't care what I do to you." Splaying her fingers wide, Xander froze in mid-air, the vines pulling his limbs hard. "And really, there are so many things I could do. I never even thought about _half_ of them till I got turned. Does that make me a sociopath?"

"I'm going to go with yes," Xander said, his voice strained with pain.

Amy gave him a half smile. "She was so insistent about not killing you and about all this planning. Why in the world she wants you, is beyond me. What makes you special, huh?" The vines tightened, digging into his skin and drawing blood. "What's inside of you that she wants, I wonder."

Buffy glanced back to Xander, afraid of what Amy might do. She saw him mumble something, the words strained and unintelligible as he grit his teeth against the pain. Amy quirked an eyebrow, her hand relaxed somewhat and the vines followed suit.

"What was that? I didn't quite hear that."

Xander took a few deep breathes, steadying himself. Smirking at the undead witch, Xander said, "A great lung capacity does mean I can hold my breath for a _real_ long time."

The air blast that came out of Xander's pursed lips was stronger than Buffy had seen previously. It sent Amy and her Hellhound guard flying backwards, knocking them through the surrounding trees, hitting more than a few on the way. The attack affected more than just Amy, though, in both good and bad ways. The good was that the highly pressurized air expanded outwards, knocking the vampires near Buffy away and to the ground. Buffy, having some idea as to what was about to happen, dropped to the dirt and pressed herself flat against the surface. It kept her from being knocked around by the high winds and let not let her eyes get messed up by the soil being kicked up.

The bad, of which Buffy only saw the end result, was that Xander went flying high into the air and over the trees into the forest behind him. Amy must have either sent him flying by instinct when he attacked or by accident, not that it mattered, really. Xander had still been wrapped up in the vines when he was thrown and Buffy didn't know if he would be able to Airbend enough to control his decent. He had been tossed pretty hard and fast and Buffy worried that if he couldn't do anything to help himself, he could really hurt himself when he landed.

But, at the moment, she had to take care of herself before she could worry about Xander. She could only hope that he was alright.

Pushing up, Buffy turned ran towards Amy, knowing that she would be the hardest to take down, if she got the chance to get her bearings. Apparently, the Hellhound knew that as well and was a lot tougher and faster than Amy was at recovering.

The creature came crashing out of the woods, snarling and flashing its fangs at anything that was near it. It scrambled to a halt, overshooting its landing and missed landing on Buffy by only a couple of feet. Changing directions, its claws digging up dirt as it sped up. Again, it jumped at Buffy, forcing her to stop and roll backwards to avoid being bit.

As she came up into a stance, Buffy felt her head explode with pain and her vision swam for a moment, making her stumble and dropping her stake. Turning, her brain complete forgetting about the Hellhound and only focusing on the next danger, she dizzily faced a vampire picking up another large rock. Shaking off the fog, she started forward only to have pain shoot up her legs as the Hellhound clawed at them, forcing her to her knees. It hurt, but her jeans kept the cuts from being worse than they could have been, not that they were pleasant, though.

Ignoring the pain, Buffy turned her fall into a leg sweep, knocking the rock wielding vampire to his feet. The hound made a move for her again, but this time Buffy was ready for it. She followed through on the sweep, making a hundred and eighty degree arc so she was now facing the damned dog. She let it jump on top of her only to lean back, using her legs to kick the dog over her and into the downed vampire.

She got up again, ready to take on the whole damn world if necessary. Even seeing the amount of vampires coming out of the woods - at this point, up to ten - she didn't care. She wasn't thinking about being weaponless, outnumbered, or injured. She only thought about how they had hurt her friend, ruined her night, and how things like this would keep happening unless she stopped it. It was beyond time to do something.

Unfortunately, when she tried to move forward, her body wasn't cooperating. She could breathe and she could move her eyes, but the rest of her ignored her commands.

"Damn it!" Amy yelled from behind her. "Will someone go out there and bring the little dork back here? And don't kill him. Remember, we need him alive."

Walking in front of Buffy, Amy shook her head. "Now, that was interesting. I mean, did little Xander Harris learn a magic trick or two? Is that what this is all about?" She paused tilting her head waiting for a response. "Oh, right, sorry about that. I forgot you can't speak like this, my bad. I couldn't have you running around, killing all these minions, you know? You have a pesky habit of beating the odds. I used to like that about you. It'll wear off soon, not that you'll be around to notice, though."

Buffy wanted to say something to Amy. Hell, she wanted to beat her into the ground 'til her face looked like a pulped orange, but she at least wanted to be able to say something snarky to piss her former friend off. Not only would it probably make her screw up, but it would also make her feel a bit better than just standing there and doing nothing.

A scream of pain from the woods, that cut off suddenly, caught both Buffy and Amy's attention.

"OK, when I said alive, I'm didn't mean mangled and broken," Amy said with a shake of her head. "Honestly, I never really understood that whole 'good help is hard to find' thing, but now…"

Amy trailed off as something fell onto her head. Reaching up, she plucked the item off her head and stared at it slightly confused. It was a leaf, which wouldn't have been that odd except that it was brown and dried out. All of the trees around them were green and full of life and with spring almost over and summer beginning, there wasn't a reason for the trees to begin losing their leaves, not like this anyway.

Buffy's eyes moved around as best as she could and notice that more and more leaves started to fall from the trees till it looked like it was raining the dried out things.

The one healthy hound looked around nervously, growling with its hackles raised. The vampires seemed to be following suit, all of them were turning their heads back and forth, trying to find the cause for the sudden avalanche of leaves, unconsciously moving closer together, forming a tight circle around Buffy and Amy.

A breeze picked up, blowing the leaves across the ground, the noise reminding Buffy of almost every horror movie she'd ever seen that took place around Halloween. When it died down, she was able to hear something else, a creaking, groaning that seemed to surround them. It wasn't loud, but considering how silent everyone was, it was practically deafening.

Amy turned as a tree fell to the ground, scattering a few of the vampires that had to jump out of the way in order to avoid being crushed. Upon impact, the tree cracked and broke in several pieces, which was odd. It also didn't make that heavy sound that Buffy would have expected a tree falling to make - it sounded far hollow-er than it should.

Walking over to it, slowly, Amy gave it a gently nudge with her foot. Even more confused, the vampire bent down and picked up one of the limbs that had snapped off. Despite her being a vampire and the supernatural strength she now possessed, she should have still had some trouble picking up the branch that was almost twice her size and thicker than both her legs combined. Instead, she had no problem and when she snapped it over her knee, it broke easy and showed how dried out the wood was.

At that moment, all hell broke loose.

A tendril of water as thick as Buffy's head whipped out of the forest, picked up one of the vampires, and threw him against a tree which crashed to the ground much like the first one had. The water changed direction, flowing back towards the group of vampires, slamming into another one while he was still processing what had happened. Instead of picking him up, the water suddenly froze solid and pinned him to the ground.

Buffy's eyes followed the ice back to the line of trees it the water had come out of, along with every vampire still standing. It took only the space of two beats before Xander came running out of the tree line, water encasing each arm and trailing behind him and following him along the ground. The amount of the liquid was more than she had ever seen the boy bend, but what amazed her was that as he ran, two more trees fell behind him, crashing to the ground with a dried thud.

Skidding to a stop, Xander flicked his left arm to the side, the water following his movement and turned into a large ice pick, piercing a vampire through the shoulder. Letting the icicle stay where it was, Xander moved his right arm in a wide arc, the water thinning out. It passed through one of the stunned vampire's neck. Even the vampire seemed stunned when she exploded into dust, clearly not expecting water to be able to decapitate her. Buffy sure as hell wasn't expecting it.

Knocked out of their stupor by the death of one of their own, the remaining vampires charged towards Xander. Buffy would have shouted a warning if she could, but as she watched, she realized that it wasn't needed. Xander spun to face the nearest vampire and, moving his arms, the water turned scythe shot forward, grabbed the large demon and flung him into another of the six standing vampires. After that, it was a little hard to keep track of him. As more vampires closed in, Xander became increasingly focused. His movements were fluid and graceful, and what surprised Buffy was how deadly he was being. While he moved around the vampires' attacks and flung them around when he needed to, if an opening came to take one of them down, he took it. In a handful of seconds, two more vampires had been dusted and the rest had been tossed aside.

Xander stood in front of Buffy and Amy, breathing heavily. His suit jacket was gone and the once crisp white shirt was now torn and dirty with spots of blood speckling it. One of his sleeves was completely gone and the other was cut open up to his elbow. He looked like a mess, but his eyes held a determination the likes of which Buffy had never seen in her friend.

"You have a chance here, Amy," Xander said, his arms empty as the water he had been using was now ice or simply used up as jets of it had been used frequently. "What happened to you wasn't your fault, but what's happening here, is. Call off the vampires and the hounds, leave Sunnydale and never come back and you get to live."

"And if I don't?" Amy said. Despite trying to sound brave and defiant, her words came out hollow.

Tightening his fist, Xander stood tall. "Then you won't leave this forest. I mean it, Amy. This is your one chance."

Buffy saw Amy put her hand behind her back, energy crackling to life. She wanted to scream out, to tackle Amy, but she still couldn't move completely. The spell was beginning to wear off, though. Already she could move her fingers, but it wasn't enough.

"Tempting," Amy said, "But I'll have to say no!"

Sweeping her arm out in front of her, Amy's spell shot forward as an arc of red and black lightening heading straight for Xander. He, in turn, moved as fast as the vampire witch did and, in another amazing feat, seemed to pull water straight out of another tree, drying it out and sending it to the ground. The water rushed towards Xander, freezing on the way and forming a barrier between him and the spell. When the magic hit the ice shield, the shield exploded sending ice, water and steam everywhere and kicking up a bit of dust.

"She's going to be pissed that I had to kill you, but no real choice about it," Amy said, palming another cackling ball of energy. "I mean, she really should have sa-"

Amy's words were cut short and the energy in her hand died away as a wet _**thunk**_ sound was heard. At the same time, the spell holding Buffy in place ended and she stumbled forward a bit, but kept herself from falling. Amy tried speaking, but all that came out was a few incoherent gurgling noises. Taking a few steps closer, Buffy grabbed Amy by the shoulder and spun her around, ready to take advantage of whatever had happened, only to stop when she saw what had caught the witch's attention.

Sticking out of Amy's neck was an ice spike nearly four fingers thick, blood spilling down the front of her dress. The pain must have been excruciating, even for a vampire. Amy's face had reverted back to her human form and her eyes shown with fear and hurt. It was enough to make Buffy pause.

"Get down!" Xander shouted, breaking Buffy out of it and, out of instinct, she dived out of the way.

Whistling sounds filled the air and Buffy looked up to find dozens of ice spikes of varying sizes sailing through the air towards Amy. Most of them missed, embedding themselves into the dirt or breaking against stone. The few that hit Amy did so with such viciousness that Buffy was sure it had to be on purpose. Two spikes went through her stomach, doubling the vampire over. This only exposed her back which was how a particularly long spike managed to go through her left shoulder and foot, sticking her to the ground.

The moment all of them landed, Xander stalked back out into the open, passing another tree and, with another push and pull movement of his arms, he pulled the water from it, drying it out. He stopped a few paces from Amy, his face unreadable.

"I gave you a chance," he said softly. "You could have left here, but…"

Stopping, Xander lowered his head almost sadly as Buffy watched him from her position on the ground, propped up on her elbows. When he moved, Buffy barely registered it. The water that had been hanging in the air behind him shot up, thinned out and sliced through what remained of Amy's neck, following the movements of Xander's arms. Amy turned to dust before the head had managed to separate completely from the rest of her body, but the ice stayed in place, melted only slightly from the blood from the vampire's body.

Buffy stared at Xander, surprised at how he was being, and at his control. This was so far away from what he had shown them and how he spoke about using his abilities that it was hard to reconcile the two ideas of him. There wasn't any glowing eyes or strange noise which made Buffy doubt that this was him in the Avatar State, meaning that it was completely Xander.

Before she could say anything, slow, soft clapping filled the air.

Turning as one, Buffy and Xander looked towards the trees to find Vampire Willow leaning against a tree, clapping. She was grinning widely, her eyes filled with genuine joy and happiness.

"There's my boy. I _knew_ you were in there somewhere, but this is _so_ much more than what I had thought was there," she said. Hugging herself, feigning a shiver, she added, "I mean you have so much potential, so much…_imagination_! Honest, I'm more turned on over here."

Buffy and Xander never took their eyes off Vampire Willow. Even as Buffy got up and made her way to stand next to Xander, she never looked away. They couldn't afford to give her a chance to attack them while they weren't looking. Buffy was able to fight, but she was still hurt and she didn't know how much more Xander could do. He had never worked this hard or this much with her before, and she had no way of telling if he had five more minutes in him or five hours.

"I mean, all that rage and violence just waiting to burst out of you! You were something to be seen when you were a vampire, believe me. The things you would do just 'cause you were bored scared most of the other vampires, but like this? You could be better than any of them, than all of them."

Without warning, Xander lashed out, attacking the demon wearing his friend's face almost before it had finished speaking. The ice that had went through Amy melted and shot forward in the familiar form of the water whip Buffy was used to seeing him use. As quick as Xander was, Willow was quicker. She side stepped the whip, moved her hand in a vague, mystical manner and suddenly the water burst into steam, evaporating into the air.

"Come on, Xander," Willow said, mockingly chastising him. "You have to be fast than that."

"Oh, I can be," Xander said fiercely.

Tapping her chin in thought, Willow smirked. "Tempting, honey, but no. Not yet, anyway."

"You think I can just let you walk away now? You really think I'll do that?"

"I kind do," Willow told him. "I think you'll have your hands too full to do anything about it."

Buffy tensed, darting her eyes around her waiting to see what else was going to be thrown at them, but she couldn't find anything. In fact, the remaining vampires had all fled, except for the one frozen to the ground. She could feel Xander on the alert next to her as well.

Willow walked slowly around the perimeter of the forest, Buffy and Xander turning to keep her in their sights. Stopping next to one of the fallen trees, she shrugged. "Well, it's either you fight me or," she put her hand on the wood, "You let the forest burn to the ground." Fire sprang forth from her hand, spreading quickly over the dried up wood. Faster than was natural, the flames leaped from tree to tree to the point where the only way out was to jump over flaming logs.

"See what I did there?" Willow said smiling. "Don't worry, lover. I have faith you'll make it out. And if the Slayer doesn't…well, that's OK with me, too."

Before either of them could say or do anything, Willow turned and fled from the clearing, the flames parting out of her way with a wave of her hands.

"Sonofabitch!" Xander yelled.

The flames started spreading to more trees, the heat getting well beyond bearable as they stood in the middle of what was quickly turning into an inferno. Turning in a full circle, Buffy realized that there was no way to get out. The flames were too high and too hot. With all of the wood around them, there was no way it would burn out before it killed the two of them.

"Xander," Buffy said, raising her voice to be heard above the roar of the flames. "Tell me you can fix this!"

Looking wildly about him, Xander was panicked. "I've got nothing!" Coughing as smoke started to thicken, he said, "I can't get enough air to blow this out and I've got no water!"

"What about the trees?" Buffy said, both of them now crouching low to the ground. "You got water from them before! Just…wave your hands at them or whatever it is you did!"

"That was before the forest was on fire! It's hard enough doing that at the best of times. With this much fire, it would be impossible. Besides, any more dried out trees would just add to the fire!"

The smoke was getting thick even as close to the ground as they were and it was getting harder and harder to breath. It didn't help matters that Buffy was positive her skin was blistering as the heat began to get worse. If they didn't get out away soon, they'd be dead. She locked eyes with Xander and knew that he felt the same way. There wasn't any way she could get out, not with how intense the fire was that raged all around them. Even if she couldn't get out, she was confident Xander could get himself out. She couldn't let him stay with her, fighting futilely against the flames if he could save himself.

A scream stopped her before she could tell him as much. Turning to the source of it, Buffy saw the vampire that had been trapped under the ice, which had long since melted, was too close to the fire. He was beginning to smoke, his clothing burned in places. Trying to get away didn't seem to be working and within a second he combusted, burning into ash as he caught fire.

This shocked Xander into action.

"Buffy, I need you to trust me," he told her.

Nodding her head, knowing that while she did trust him, she also didn't have much of a choice in the matter, Buffy readied herself for whatever he had planned. Still, it was something of a surprise when he stood up, grabbed her arm in a surprisingly strong grip, and swung her onto his back. Buffy was happy she grabbed on tight out of reflex, or else she would have fallen off since he started moving the moment she was on him. She didn't know what he planned on doing, but the heat was truly unbearable. Every step closer to the fire only made it that much worse. She couldn't understand what Xander was trying to do, but if he didn't hurry up and do something, it wouldn't matter. Neither of them would be able to stay conscious for long between the intense heat and smoke surrounding them.

Just as the heat became almost too much to take, Buffy felt Xander make a sharp turn, sprinting towards the opposite end of the ring of fire. Waving his arms back and forth, he pushed them out in front of them and a rush of heated wind shot forward making a small opening in the wall of fire in front of them. There was still too much fire to make it out unscathed at their speed and, with how far the fire was spreading, she doubted they could make a run for it. But, Xander didn't seem to be planning on running. Moving his arms in a way that reminded Buffy of a ball, Buffy's eyes went wide as he pushed his palms towards the floor and jumped onto a ball of air so dense she could actually see the damn thing spinning beneath him.

The two of them shot forward on the ball of air at a far greater speed than Xander had been running, Buffy holding tighter to his neck. The fire started closing off the small opening Xander had made, but it didn't matter. They moved past the hole in the fire and continued on. Fire roared all around them, bringing small burns and blisters on their exposed skin, but still Xander sped onwards. With far more maneuverability than Buffy would have imagined, especially at their speed, Xander dodged burning trees, bushes, fallen logs and everything else that got blocked their path. It took a few painful seconds, but finally they moved past the worst of the flames, but Xander still pressed on, not stopping till they reached a cliff edge overlooking the ocean.

While the ride was smooth, the brakes needed work. Both Buffy and Xander stumbled, tripped, and rolled a few feet on the ground and would have gone over the edge had Buffy not grabbed Xander's arm and grabbed onto a sapling that barely supported their weight. Laying on their back and stomach, respectively, they breathed heavily for a few moments, needing to rest.

Rising to his feet, a bit shakily, Xander stood and faced back the way they came.

"It's too close," Xander told her. "That part of the forest is too close to town. The fire's already getting out of control. The fire department can't handle this, even if they were already here."

"What? How do you know?" Buffy asked, getting up to stand with him.

"Trust me, Buffy. I know about fire," he said a bit darkly. "The way this thing is going, it'll reach the town easy. By the time it does, it'll be so far gone, they'll be calling in fire companies from any town that will take the call."

Clearing her throat which was burning and dry from breathing in the smoke, Buffy shook her head. "Can you get us out of here before the fire reaches us?"

"No."

"No?"

"We aren't running from this," Xander told her firmly. He glanced behind them out over the cliff, back in front of them to where the fire was already beginning to cast an orange glow in the night sky. When he looked back at Buffy, she saw something in his eyes that she had only just begun to see in small doses, hidden behind all of his jokes. A fierceness that managed to frighten her a bit, but also fill her with the same determination.

But, having that feeling didn't mean that there was anything they could actually do. Slayer strength and speed didn't do squat against a forest fire, and Xander…well, he was certainly holding back, but what was he able to do? He couldn't firebend, not yet anyway, which meant that was out of the question. If he couldn't pull water out of the trees without spreading the fire even faster, she didn't know what he thought he could do. The whole pulling water out of trees still amazed her and would spend a lot of time later just processing that he _could_ do that, but now wasn't the time.

Buffy was about to ask him just what he had planned, but he beat her to it. With an odd sort of smile, he rested a hand on her shoulder, saying, "When I get back, be ready to run back towards the fire."

Buffy gave him a 'are you stupid' look, asking, "What?"

Stepping away from her and a few steps back, he winked. "Trust me, you don't want to be near the edge here if I can pull this off."

Again, he didn't give her a chance to say anything. Without another word, he ran forward and leapt off the cliff, using some Airbending to help him jump further than any normal person, probably even further than she could with a good running start. Going after him, Buffy stopped and looked over the edge, watching as Xander dived into the ocean. A small part of the water rose up to meet him as he went in. There wasn't even a small splash as he hit the surface.

She watched the water for a bit, trying to see any sign of him, but after a few seconds, all she could see was the lapping of the waves against the rocks. If Xander had misjudged his jump, he might have hit the rocks. What if he wasn't as strong to do what he was trying? What if he drowned in the ocean trying to pull off whatever he was aiming to do? What if the current was too powerful and he got swept out to sea?

Dozens of scenarios went through Buffy's mind, each one more horrific than the last. As she went over them, swearing to cut the evil, demonic version of Willow's head off, Buffy almost missed the swell of the ocean.

It started small, rising up only slightly as the water around the hill of liquid stilled. All too soon, the dome of water swelled more and more till it burst. From Buffy's vantage point, it was hard to make out the details, but something unnatural was going on down there and something was rising out of the water, fast.

Her mouth hung open a bit as a shape became clearer, the closer it got, and her eyes followed it as it rose into the air. Standing at eye level with her, was Xander. His legs were covered in a cyclone of water up to his hips that went back down to the ocean, somehow keeping him up. The water moved back and forth, but didn't break or fall apart, despite the height or the sheer impossibility of the whole thing.

"Buffy! Go! Get inland!" Xander yelled at her.

She stood stock still, hearing his words but unable to move. She continued watching as he raised his arms slowly, his eyes now closed and his face set in fierce concentration. Behind him, the ocean rose once more, only instead of a gentle, small mound of water, this looked more like a wave the likes of which she'd only seen in disaster movies. In the space of three seconds, the wave was already as high as Xander was and had started heading towards them.

"Oh crap," Buffy whispered.

Turning on her heels, she spun and started running back the way they had come. She could hear the wave as it crashed onto the cliff face, the water rushing along the ground now. Chancing a look behind her, she nearly tripped as she saw the water crashing into trees, knocking a few of them over, all the while Xander was _riding_ the wave as it continued to move forward with greater speed, something Buffy knew shouldn't be possible. What was more frightening was that Buffy was pretty sure Xander was actually smiling while he stayed on top of the crest of the wave, moving himself out of the way of the trees that were taller than the twelve foot wave.

The water was faster than she was and soon Buffy was swept off her feet and struggling to keep her head up. Too many times to count, she found herself fully submerged. Memories of facing the master, of drowning in the shallow pool of water, entered her mind, but she pushed them down. She banged against several rocks and trees, but managed to protect her head from the worst of it. It was hard to tell how long she was tossed around, but finally, with her lungs burning from lack of oxygen, she stopped, the deepest of the waters racing past her. She took a deep breath of air, coughing and just knowing that her throat was going to be a mess tomorrow.

Laying on her back, water lapping around her, Buffy knew she had to get up, but it was so easy to stay on the ground. She hurt all over and she wanted nothing more than to go to sleep right where she was. She couldn't, of course, but that didn't keep her from wanting to. The smell of burnt wood filled her senses, knocking the last bit of weariness from her head. The fear of being burned to death does that to person.

Once on her feet, Buffy looked around, trying to figure out exactly where she was. She could see the clearing, fire free now, with smoke rising from the burnt out trees. It took a moment, but she spotted Xander a few yards to her left, dealing with what remained of the intense forest fire. She stood, watching him work since it was clear that there was nothing she could do at the moment.

Xander bent the water from the wave he had brought on land, using it to smother the flames with small, strong, jets of the liquid. At times, he would freeze it once it covered a particularly stubborn patch of fire, instantly quelling it. Each move cost him a bit of water, as the fire evaporated some of whatever he used to put it out. Even with the destructive nature of the fire around him, it actually looked rather…beautiful the way he moved, not that she would tell him that. She knew enough about the whole guy code thing now to know that would just make him uncomfortable. Still, it was easy to just watch him move.

Once the major fires were out, Xander started moving his arms in a wide circle, and the water that he had been using to douse the flames swirled around him. She couldn't see exactly what he was doing, but when he inhaled deeply, she knew something was up. He exhaled and pushed his arms out to his sides and the water reacted instantly. Somehow, the water expanded, forming a sphere that rapidly started heading outwards in every direction. Resigning herself to it, Buffy shut her eyes and braced herself to be hit, once more, with water.

Oddly, the water never touched her, but a blast of cold air did with enough force that it nearly knocked her down. Her eyes shot open and she wrapped her arms around herself, her exposed skin and wet clothes freezing her as the air around her become super chilled.

Buffy was speechless at this point. The air was incredibly cold and the water that had been sent out had, somehow, turned to snow that was now falling gently all around her. Xander stood in the same spot he had been, breathing heavily and looking shaky on his feet.

As the snow fell around them, Buffy was hesitant to speak. It seemed almost…wrong to say anything at the moment. The wind howled gently in the background as the cold wind brought the snow chilled air out further to the edges of the smoldering trees, putting them out for good. It was eerily quiet as they stood, staring at each other. It was impossible to read Xander's emotions, to know what he was thinking, and Buffy was fairly certain that she didn't even have a coherent thought in her head.

It could have been two hours or two minutes, but finally Buffy took a few steps forward, ready to break the silence. "Xander, are you-"

A gust of wind kicked up, blinding her with snow and ash. When it died down and she was able to see again, Xander was gone. She spun around a few times, but he was nowhere to be seen. Shocked by everything that had happened, Buffy started heading out of the forest, the sounds of sirens getting closer with each step she took. The cops and fire department would be here soon, no doubt called in by the sheer number of calls about the fire, but they weren't needed anymore. Xander had made sure of that. She only wished she knew where he had gone.

That, and that she didn't catch pneumonia walking back to town.


	16. Chapter 16

**_A/N:_** Greetings one and all. This took a bit longer than I would have liked to get done, but computer problems keep plaguing me. Also sorry that I haven't been able to respond to the reviews left because of it. Anyhow, here it is. Thanks to Greywizard for the help, once again. Also, there's a special guest in this chapter but the disclaimer will wait till the next one till I actually name him. And anyone who is waiting to see about Wesley, wait for the next chapter. Feedback, as always, is welcome. Enjoy!

Chapter 16

Taking another deep sip, Buffy savored the warmth that spread throughout her body. It had taken nearly over an hour and a half before she had been able to reach Giles' apartment after leaving the forest. A freezing ninety minutes in which she was sure she was going to die from the cold that had seeped into her. It shouldn't have taken that long, but the fire department and the cops had gotten on the scene quicker than normal. It had taken some time to keep herself hidden while getting out onto the road back to town. In the end, she had ended up about another mile away from the main road when she slipped through the quickly structured barricade. By the time she had managed to get to Giles' place, her teeth were chattering and her lips where turning blue. The wet and freezing cold clothing she had on wouldn't warm just because she was the Slayer.

The Prom had long since been over and it had only been dumb luck that had her running into the ex-Watcher as he was on his way home. He had actually wanted to check on Xander since he hadn't arrived at the dance and he was a little concerned about the younger man's absence. She tried telling him what had happened right away, but she was so cold that nothing came out except incoherent chattering. It wasn't until Giles had gotten her inside, a mug of tea, and several blankets that she warmed up enough to explain everything. After going through it twice more, Giles got up to make some calls, leaving Buffy on her own.

Knowing that she needed it in order to get herself back into fighting shape, as well as feel normal and more awake, she grabbed her stash of emergency clothes she left at Giles' apartment and grabbed a quick hot shower. Her skin was still cold enough that the warm water burned at first, but after a few minutes, she was feeling much better than before. Even some of the knots in her back worked themselves out with a mixture of near boiling water and some light stretching.

Once done, she emerged from the bathroom in clean clothes and flushed skin, ready to head back out and look for Xander. Giles, still on the phone, pointed to the kitchen where Buffy found a fresh cup of tea and smiled softly. She didn't really care for the stuff, but with enough sugar, she could drink it. The thought behind it, though, made her glad that Giles was there for her. She would hate to think what life would be like if Wesley had been her Watcher after Merrick, and shuddered in her mind. That line of thinking was best left to the places of her nightmares.

So, as patiently as she could, she waited for Giles to finish up with whoever he was talking to and sat on a stool, drinking in as much of the hot liquid as she could. After being that cold, she didn't think she could be warm enough, and she wanted to be as well as she could be to go back out there and find Xander.

'_When I find him, I'm tying a bell around his neck, I swear it,'_ she thought to herself.

After an agonizingly long five minutes, Giles finally hung up his phone, turning to Buffy.

"That was Willow," he told her. "She and Oz should be here shortly. They'll make a pass by the motel where Faith insists on staying and bring her by if they can find her."

"Wasn't she at the dance?" Buffy asked confused.

"She was," Giles told her hesitantly. "She, uh, left in something of a hurry after you and Xander failed to make an appearance."

Closing her eyes, Buffy cursed to herself. She didn't have time to deal with Faith in a mood right now. What happened tonight couldn't be blamed on her, not that it meant much with Faith. Buffy had gone through a lot and kept her cool for longer than she thought possible in order to get Faith to show up to that dance. Maybe it had been foolish on her part to think that Faith and Xander would make a good, if unorthodox, pair, but that was the only thing she could say was her fault. She was certain that there was something going on between the two and if Faith knew what had really happened, she would be out there beating the crap out of anything that may have seen Xander. But her sister Slayer wasn't known for making informed decisions. If she thought Xander had stood her up, or worse, that he had stood her up to be with another woman, she didn't want to think about what Faith would do.

"Damn it," Buffy whispered. Louder, she said, "Alright, fine. If we can get Faith on board, great. If not, we'll have to track him down without her…somehow."

"Short of driving around and sticking our head out the window, I haven't got an idea worth a damn," Giles said, his voice tense.

Giles hadn't reacted well to the news of Xander being missing and attacked, again, because of Vamp Willow. While in the shower, Buffy was sure he had cursed up a storm, thinking that she couldn't hear him. The amount of times Xander had been injured or put in the hospital because of the whole Avatar thing had become far too many in such a short amount of time. If things kept going like this, it was scary to think what would happen as the years went on.

Aside from Xander being possibly injured and suddenly missing, there was something else that bothered Giles, and Buffy as well. Without anyone around and now that she was no longer in any danger of hypothermia, it was the best time to talk about it.

"Giles," Buffy began, "back in the forest…"

Sighing, Giles shoved his hands into the pockets of his tux pants. "Yes, I was wondering about that as well." Pausing for a moment, he shook his head, saying, "I think we can safely say he was holding back what he could do."

"That's putting it mildly," Buffy snorted. "I've never seen him like that, not even a hint of it! He…he took water out of the trees, Giles!"

"I'm sure it was unnerving, Buffy. But what we need to determine, when we find Xander, is if he's the one in control, if he's still Xander. That amount of power-"

"Isn't something we can let run around if Xander isn't in control," Buffy said interrupting him, slightly resigned. "I know, I know."

"Well, yes, that too," Giles agreed. "But, I was going to say that it's bloody frightening, honestly."

"You're not wrong."

"If it is Xander, and we have no real reason to believe otherwise, we need to find out why he's been holding back. That and how much he's been keeping from us. Is this the most powerful he is or is there still more that he can do?"

"You mean, like, oh, I don't know, making a freaking tsunami appear out no-where?" Buffy asked incredulously.

"Buffy, we have no way of telling what his limits are, as of now. Before, we assumed he could only do things like this if in the Avatar State and that he had no control over his actions when in that state. Now, well, we have no idea what he's capable of. Not to mention that, as far as we know, he hasn't even begun training with the earth and fire elements."

Paling slightly as that sunk in, Buffy sat back on the stool. "Oh, well, when you put it that way…"

"Precisely."

Buffy stood up, pushing those thoughts from her mind. "It doesn't matter, not now. We still need to find Xander. If it's Xander, we'll talk to him. If it isn't Xander, then I'll make whatever took over his body give it back."

"It may not be that simple, Buffy. Just because you ask, it doesn't mean that it'll do as you say. This sort of being is well beyond what we're used to dealing with."

"I never said I was going to ask," she ground out, baling her hands into fists. "If this thing refuses or can't give us back Xander, then I'll make sure it doesn't do anything like this, again."

Luckily, Willow and Oz arrived, sans Faith. As Giles filled them in, Buffy began to wonder just how much of what she said was merely bluff.

* * *

If something had taken over Xander, if it wasn't him, could she really kill it? After the mess with Angelus, she would like to think she was stronger now, but still, she wondered. Xander had always been, well, Xander. This thing wasn't a demon that took him over. It was…well, it was something else that she didn't quite understand. If she could kill it, would she be able to while it still wore Xander's face? If it was evil, if it tried to kill people, that was a completely different story, but what if it wasn't?

Xander and every source they found talked about the Avatar as being a force for good or, at the very least, of balance. If it was something that took over Xander because of Ethan, it wouldn't even be its fault.

This was all too confusing at the moment, Buffy decided. Like she told Giles, there wasn't any point in thinking or discussing it anymore, not until they found Xander. _If_ they found Xander, a small voice in her head whispered. She only guessed that he ran off somewhere for one reason or another, but she really didn't know. At this point, anything was possible with him. She wouldn't be at all surprised if they found him lounging on the beach at sunrise working on a tan and having the ocean do twenty foot waves for his enjoyment. At least she hoped he was. It was a lot better than some of the alternatives.

Groaning, Xander tried to open his eyes, but quickly shut them as pain shot through his skull. One of these days, he was going to wake up and _not_ be hurting, he swore it. It may not happen for a long time, but damn it, he'd do it.

His mouth was dry and his throat so raw that if he coughed, he'd probably end up tearing something. His lips were so dry and cracked that he tasted a bit of blood on them from the worst of it. For a split second, his brain started panicking as he couldn't remember where he was. When the memories of the forest fire, Vampire Willow, and everything else came rushing back, he calmed down slightly.

After putting out the flames and making sure that they wouldn't start up again, he had run. He didn't even know why at the time, but he did it. As fast as he could, which was saying something, he ran. Through the streets of Sunnydale, out onto the highway, and out into the desert. He didn't remember stopping, which probably explained why he was face down on the dried out ground and why his legs and arms felt like jell-o.

Wait, if he was out in the middle of the desert, why wasn't he freezing to death? It had taken him a few moments to figure it out, but now that he had his brain back, it was in full blown panic mode. The sun wasn't up or else he'd be feeling baked, out in the open like he was. He was definitely outside, that was for sure. There was no mistaking the feel of the wind on his face. That gentle, warm, caressing, crackling wind…

Ignoring the weariness and protesting of his limbs, Xander jumped up, spinning in midair and landing on his feet. He tried to get himself into some kind of stance, but his world suddenly tilted and his knees gave out. Xander was ready to great the ground again and was surprised when a pair of strong hands caught him under each arm.

"Easy," a man said, his voice soft, but sure. "Easy now."

Gently, Xander felt himself be lowered to the ground and propped up against a boulder. He tried to figure out who was with him, but his world was too busy trying to right itself to focus on anything. As it was he, was already feeling sick to his stomach and he knew that he had over done it back in the forest. If he had kept up with his training, he wouldn't be in this state, but now wasn't the time to berate himself. Now was the time to not throw up.

"Here, drink this," the man told him, putting a metal cup into his hand, adding, "_slowly_."

He knew that he shouldn't do it, that he couldn't trust that what was in the cup wasn't poison or anything like that. But, there was something about the unknown man that made Xander trust him and he couldn't say why. It was a bit off putting. He started to question if he shouldn't just toss the cup to the side and try and get up again. It probably would have worked better had he not suddenly found himself taking a small sip from the tin cup while he was debating what to do.

The unfounded trust in the man was well put. All Xander could taste was cool water. At first, he heeded the man's advice and took only small sips. It was a good thing that he did since, at first, the water hurt like hell as it hit his raw throat. After the initial pain, the water felt good, soothing. Tilting the cup back as far as he could, Xander gulped down the remaining water, not caring that some of it spilled out onto his face and down his shirt. It was too much and the cup fell away as a coughing fit hit him.

"It's alright. Calm down and relax," the man told him.

Xander felt the man pat him on the back a few times, hard enough to move him around a bit. Once he was done coughing, surprised he hadn't ripped his throat open with how sore it was, the cup was placed back in his hand filled again.

"Now, go _easy_ this time. I'm in no rush and you look like you shouldn't be running off anywhere at the moment, either."

By this time, the world was finally making sense again, visually anyway, and Xander was able to get a good look at who his good Samaritan was.

He was crouched by a small fire, the very thing that had made Xander realize that something was wrong since wind doesn't crackle. It was hard to get a feel for how tall the man was, but it was hard to miss just how solid he was. As the man warmed his hands by the fire, the sleeves on his blue and white flannel shirt were rolled up, giving Xander a view of powerful forearms that led up to large biceps and shoulders. Even from this vantage point, Xander could tell the difference between this man's body and that of someone that simply worked out a lot. His was the type that came from hard work and a lot of it.

His face was hard to read since all he did was look into the flames, humming some song Xander couldn't make out. The salt and pepper hair matched his worn, lined face. The kind of lines a man only gets when he's laughed, cried, and truly lived life. He had a well groomed beard that, unlike his hair, was so dark it could have been considered black. Whoever he was, he was older, maybe as old as Giles. Just by crouching there, peacefully warming his hands, he oozed calm and peace. Like with his trusting the water, those emotions were just…there.

That didn't mean that Xander was simply going to trust him. After all, this guy just _happened_ to be out in the middle of nowhere at the same time that he ran out here till he passed out from exhaustion? Leprechauns and coincidences.

"So…" Xander started lamely, "thanks for the water."

The man nodded. "Don't worry. There's plenty more if you need it. When you're feeling up to it, I can heat up some soup, but you should wait till your throat is a bit more used to swallowing again. There's a first aid kit in the truck. You really should see to your cuts and burns. I would have done it already, but I thought it best not to move you till you woke up."

"Oh, thanks," Xander replied dumbly. "Listen, don't take this the wrong way, but um, you're not planning on sacrificing me or something, are you?"

The man balked at the accusation. "What? Why would you think such a thing?"

Raising his hands up, Xander quickly said, "Sorry! Sorry! Just…well, what the hell are you doing out here? And why are you helping me?"

"Are you saying that I should have just left you out here on your own to freeze to death or worse?" When Xander didn't say anything, the man shook his head slowly. "It truly saddens me that being a decent person brings such suspicion these days."

"Look, I'm sorry! People don't normally do that kind of thing, not in my experience. Plus, really, what the hell are you doing out here? You don't think that's just a _little_ suspicious?"

"I was here, because I was meant to be here," he told him, his voice heavy with meaning that Xander couldn't quite understand. "Also," he added, "I saw that cloud of dust you were kicking up and thought it best to investigate. By the time I got out here, you had already passed out. The best I could do till you woke up, was start a fire to keep you warm and make sure nothing else came looking to see what had happened."

Rubbing the back of his neck, slightly embarrassed at being caught, Xander laughed nervously. "You, uh, saw that huh?"

The man didn't say anything, but nodded his head slightly, watching Xander carefully.

Xander considered lying to him, making up some story on the spot that would have been flimsy, at best, but, he didn't. For starters, whatever story he said would have more holes in it than a colander. A few of the other reasons was the feeling the man was putting off. It's not as if he couldn't lie to him, he was certainly capable of it if he chose to, but he didn't want to. There was an honesty about him that made Xander want to tell him the truth. It wasn't anything supernatural, it was just who this man was.

Also, it was because of who Xander was. He was the Avatar now and while that didn't mean he wasn't allowed to lie, it did make him feel like he shouldn't unless, absolutely necessary. Unlike Buffy, he didn't feel the need to hide who he was, not unless he needed to. It didn't mean he was going to shout who and what he could do from the rooftops. He knew enough that there were organizations out there that would hunt him to the ends of the Earth if they knew about him. Hell, he'd run into one of them already.

Still, he was the Avatar, and despite everything that he had done tonight, he still wanted to uphold certain aspects of that. He couldn't put his finger on why, but he felt that he could trust the man across from him not to react violently. There was no way to tell if he would believe him, or what would happen after that, but he wasn't going to start off by lying to him.

"Well, I guess I was going a little fast there…"

Again, the man nodded. "That would be putting it lightly. Unless I'm mistaken, you looked to be going almost sixty miles an hour before you fell."

Both of them were silent, contemplating their next words. The man seemed to be studying Xander, looking for something. For what, Xander didn't know.

When he could no longer take the quiet, or the scrutiny, Xander asked, "Well, aren't you going to ask?"

"Ask what?" the man replied.

"You know." Xander waved his hands around in a vague manner. "The question."

"Ah, yes, I see. The _question_." Standing up, giving Xander a view of his impressive height and definitely letting him see the strong, powerful frame on the older man, he asked, "Purple, or green?"

It took his brain a moment to process, but Xander realized that wasn't exactly the question he was expecting. In fact, he was pretty sure that wasn't a question he even understood.

"Um…huh?"

Walking around the fire and a little behind Xander, he said, "Those injuries are bound to get infected if you leave them open like that. My wife's been letting our youngest help her pack my first aid kit, so you have your choice of either purple or green bandages."

Xander watched him walk to a white pick-up truck parked off to the side and behind him. It would have been impossible to notice unless Xander had turned his body around to see it. He heard a door open and close a few seconds later, and the flannel-wearing man mystery man returning with a large white box in his one hand.

The first aid kit turned out to be an extra large tackle box. The man started opening it, removing individual antiseptic and alcohol wipes, gauze, and ointments, along with the aforementioned colored bandages. He laid everything out with a methodic and practiced ease, putting everything just so. It was clear he had done this before and this was hardly the worst he had ever had to attend to. Xander could easily see prefilled syringes, stitching needles and thread, along with some things that he couldn't identify with just a quick glance.

"Hold out your arms," the man told him. "Burns can get infected quicker than the cuts and once they do it'll be that much harder to treat."

Xander held his arms out and let the man treat his wounds, realizing the entire time how stupid he was being. This would be a lot of work to go through to hurt him or kill him, though. And even though he could heal himself faster and better, he still let the man treat his various wounds. If nothing else, it gave Xander time to work out exactly who the man was. That, and even if he had seen him run faster than the speed limit, healing himself with water might be a bit much.

"I can't help but notice that you're a bit oddly dressed for a late night run through the desert," the man told him as he placed a generous amount of antibacterial ointment on one of the nastier burns on his forearm.

Looking down, hissing slightly, Xander remembered that he was wearing the torn, dirty, and bloody remains of his tux. Despite everything else being destroyed, the bowtie had managed to survive, intact, and was snuggly attached to his neck.

"Yeah, well, you seem to be pretty calm about a kid running as fast as a cheetah," Xander responded flippantly.

"I've seen many strange things in this world," he told him, slightly cryptically.

"Really?" Xander asked, honestly curious when the man didn't elaborate.

Finishing up with his one arm, he started on the other arm, choosing the green bandage after Xander nodded to it. "Things of unimaginable beauty," he said as his face lighting up as he remembered something. Just as easily his face also darkened, saddened by a new memory. "And…I've seen things of great horror, of unrelenting darkness."

"And, I'd wager, considering what you were capable of, that you've seen some things in your short years, as well," he added giving him a look.

"You could say that," Xander said with a sigh. "I live, uh, in a place that's pretty much craziness and insanity year round."

"Is that how you were injured?"

"Yeah, that would be it in a nutshell. Just another day on the Hellmouth," Xander snorted. The man's hands tightened on his arm rubbing against some raw skin, causing Xander to hiss in pain.

"Blood of Christ," the man whispered. "You live in that…that _place?_"

"Take it you heard of it?" Xander asked wincing a bit as the man's hold didn't lessen.

Realizing he was hurting Xander, he apologized and let go, going back to cleaning him up and bandaging what he could. "I should have realized that I was close. The stench of evil was strong here, I just couldn't tell from where. I thought…well, I thought it was something else."

"Yep, good ol' Sunnydale. Home of the Hellmouth and other nasties."

The man shook his head sadly. "How old are you? Sixteen? Seventeen?"

"Eighteen."

"This life isn't for someone so young," the man stated softly, finishing up the wrappings. "But, then again, what age is it appropriate?"

"Um…yeah," Xander said a little confused. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you're not exactly new to the whole supernatural thing, huh?"

Giving him a small, smile, he shook his head. "No, I am certainly not. I've been involved in this…with the supernatural, for a great many years, now. But, it's all been worth it," he told Xander. "After all, it is all part of His plan after all."

"His? His who?"

"_His_ plan," the man said again.

The word had far more weight than Xander had thought it possible could. He was confused as to who 'He' was, but as long as it wasn't someone that wanted to eat his face or do anything otherwise nasty to him, he didn't care at the moment. His body was still aching from the sudden burst of bending he had done and as long as he didn't have to fight, he was happy. Of course, if this guy and his equally nameless boss did mean him harm, and Xander really didn't think they did, he'd put them in the ground.

It dawned on Xander that he meant it. If someone tried to hurt him, really hurt him, or anyone really, he would stop them. The change in thinking hadn't been sudden, he knew. It had been simmering in his mind for a while now, only unspoken. He hadn't even realized it himself how profound a problem it had been for him. Holding back had sunk him into negative and depressive thoughts. At the time, he had thought that it was being overly concerned with what everyone would think of him or how they would react if he let loose or went at his full potential. It was, in a way, linked to his holding back, but he was wrong on _why_ he felt so off as of late.

But, what did that mean for him? Was he somehow betraying Aang or the way of the Avatar by so quickly cutting down the vampires back in the forest? Would he be disappointed or hurt by the way Xander had acted, even if he had done so to save Buffy and himself?

The answers to those questions would have to wait for now, though. The older man was talking to him again, standing up from where he had been kneeling.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, what happened to you? Like I said, those aren't the kind of clothes you'd want to be wearing out here and, even if they were, you, and they, look like they've seen better days."

"Ever get the feeling you're just not meant for nice things?" Xander mused looking down at the tattered remains of his tux.

"Nonsense," the man said. "The things you need will always be provided for you, so long as you actually try. Though, don't mistake what you _need_ for what you _want_." Giving Xander a hard look, but not unkind, he told him, "Now, what happened?"

Rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, Xander began to tell him an edited version of what had happened. About the Hellhounds, the Prom, the forest fire and, the vampires. He left out Buffy being the Slayer, leaving her as just being his friend who was with him. That wasn't his secret to tell, no matter what happened. He also left out any mention of exactly who Vamp Willow was, or Amy, for that matter. Even if this guy was in on the supernatural, which was still a little bit too convenient for Xander to believe, but was going along with it anyway for the time being, Xander didn't even want to begin trying to explain those two. Trans-dimensional vampire doppelgangers and a witch turned rat turned vampire were just too much for one sitting. As it was, he was pretty sure he sounded insane. The more he thought about it, the more he probably should have limited saying exactly what he had done too. At least he didn't mention anything about the Avatar, even if he told him about putting out the fire by himself.

When he was finished, the man across from him only looked at him, frowning slightly. "And your friend, you just left her there?" he asked, his tone even. When Xander nodded, the peaceful, if somewhat stoic, demeanor changed to one of anger.

Standing up, the man hissed harshly, "You mean to tell me that you left your friend, defenseless and alone in the middle of a burnt out forest after all of that? Knowing that the creature that set the blaze was still alive and could be waiting to strike?"

"Um…well, no. Not really," Xander said feeling flushed with embarrassment. "I mean, she wasn't completely defenseless."

"Did you or did you not leave her there on her own?"

"Maybe?" Xander squeaked, shrinking back a bit. Even if he hadn't mentioned about having a daughter, Xander would have bet that the man was a father. Or possibly a drill sergeant. From the way he was yelling at him without actually raising his voice, it was easy to see that he had some practice with it and it was doing a really good job at making him feel like he was three inches tall at the moment.

The older man closed his eyes for a moment, whispering something to himself before visibly calming. When he opened them again, he stared at Xander for a good long minute before speaking. "Help collect the things here, pack it in the blanket in the bed of the truck and put back there while I take care of the fire. We'll be leaving in three minutes."

Xander got to his feet, watching the man dump dirt upon the small fire with a small shovel he grabbed from the truck. "Um…where are we going?"

"To make sure _your friend_ isn't the play thing of some Black court vampire," he told him gruffly. "Then, if the Lord wills it, and she is fine you are going to apologize to that young woman for abandoning her."

Xander didn't have a snappy comeback to that and, while feeling slightly dumbfounded by being ordered around by a man he didn't even know the name of, he still did as he was told. In the end, Xander knew that he was right. So what if he had freaked out by what he had done and what it meant both for himself and his friends? He shouldn't have left Buffy alone out there, Slayer or not. It was obvious that Vamp Willow was stronger than any of them had thought, and just as smart as their own Willow, just more devious and evil with it. It would have been easy for the demon to sit and wait to see what happened to him and Buffy, only to strike when he had left and Buffy was by herself.

If anything happened to her, it would be his fault. Another life would be on his hands because he didn't do what he was supposed to, regardless, or perhaps in spite, of his power. He didn't feel remorse for what he did back in the forest, for killing the vampires. All this time, he thought he would, but in the end it felt…well, not right, but not wrong, either. It felt necessary, almost as if it had to be done, he would do it. There certainly wasn't another way out of it, not that he had seen, anyway. The only thing that worried him afterwards was what this meant for him as the Avatar, something that he couldn't talk about with anyone at the moment. Well, at least not until he was able to get a moment alone and contact Aang.

Right now, though, he needed to get to Buffy and make sure she was OK.

There wasn't a lot to be cleaned up, but Xander made sure he picked up everything he could find. All of the first aid stuff went back in the box with as much order as possible. The cup was washed out and went on top of the box. A few more cooking utensils were off to the side by the fire, and which were luckily already cleaned, and that was about it. He grabbed the blanket from the truck and wrapped it all up, like he was told to do. Xander stood waiting, holding everything as the man finished up with the fire.

When he was done, he walked over to the truck and got in. Despite knowing how idiotic it was to actually get in the truck as well, Xander followed and got in the passenger side. Once settled in, Xander jumped back a bit, surprised to find the man looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Something on my face?" Xander asked leaning away.

"Besides some dust, ash, and blood, no," he told him simply. "Now, buckle up."

"Oh! Right, sorry!"

Xander hastily placed everything on the floor, gently, and put on his seatbelt. The second the click was heard, the man turned the ignition and floored the gas. Xander was a little surprised at how much pick up the thing had despite it being a truck. Pretty soon they were racing through the desert, ignoring the road altogether and heading straight for Sunnydale with a huge dust cloud following them. Still, it would take them some time before they reached the town, even at their impressive speed.

In the silence of the truck's cab, it was hard for Xander's thoughts not to stray. He wasn't able to focus on any single thought, and drifted from one to the next.

He thought about the sheer insanity of being where he was right now, going back to Buffy in a truck with a complete stranger. Granted, a stranger that seemed completely trustworthy for some reason, but Xander didn't even know the guy's name. Even if the man driving knew about the supernatural, there was something off about him. Not in a bad way, just…different from anyone else that Xander had ever met before. But, here he was, riding along with him back to Sunnydale to make sure Buffy was OK.

This only reminded him of the fact that he had ran off, leaving his friend on her own. It wasn't as if Buffy couldn't take care of herself. She was Buffy, the Buffster. There wasn't a thing out there that Xander doubted that she could beat, not if given a fighting chance, anyway. Was that really true, though? Given what he now knew of the world, of the places beyond this world, did he really think that Buffy was incapable of losing when it came down to it?

No. She wasn't invincible, he had no illusions about that. But, in his heart of hearts, he always felt she would be able to save the day, even if the cost was her life. Vampires, demons, witches and anything else the Hellmouth threw her way would be a sticky stain on the floor when Buffy was through with it, he was sure of that. So, why did he seem so unsure of what he had once thought was a solid fact before?

The Avatar. Well, no, not the Avatar itself, but what him being the Avatar had brought down on them. Suddenly, they weren't facing things that wanted to kill them or take over the world or even end the world. No, now they had evil law firms and interdimensional vampire witches, both of whom seemed to be working by means that were completely new to them. These weren't direct attacks, not really. What Vamp Willow did tonight…it was something else. But, for the life of him, Xander just couldn't figure out why she did it. What was her goal in turning Amy and sending her after Buffy and himself? It was as if she knew that he would be there with Buffy. The way she had reacted when he had killed those vampires, the way he had attacked Amy, it was as if that's what she had been waiting for, what she wanted.

And, Spirits, what he had done to Amy and those vampires! Xander knew he was fed up at that point, he knew he needed to act, but after it was done, he was at a loss with himself. He still didn't feel bad about what he had done, it wasn't as if he would take it back. But it unsettled him all the same. The kind of violence he had shown, the willingness to hurt and kill and give into all of his rage, had felt so good. It was so unlike how Aang would have done things.

Then again, Aang, despite being really just a twelve year old, was so much more mature and different from him. Aang had been raised from birth to control his emotions and not let his anger dictate his actions. Xander, on the other hand, had let his own emotions determine everything he did. Although, when Aang had gotten angry, he usually almost destroyed a whole mess of places and endangered a lot of people. The kid could be damn scary at times.

Xander cursed himself. By letting his emotions get in the way, he had done the same thing, only in a much more passive way. His fears of being cast out by his friends, the worry that he would be turned away or, worse yet, be hunted by the very people he cared about had done just as much damage. He had shied away from doing everything he could and, as a result, had nearly killed those same people. Everyone had been put at risk because he hadn't done enough, because he had held back.

"We'll make it to her in time," the man told him, casting a glance over to Xander. "Don't worry."

His inner thoughts disturbed, Xander blinked twice as his brain tried to catch up with what was said. Unable to do so, he eloquently said, "Huh?"

"You're friend. We'll make it to her before harm can come to her."

"What? Buffy? I'm not worried…well, I am, but she can take care of herself…mostly," Xander said, realizing halfway through how unconvincing he was sounding. "Besides, who said I was worried? I'm not worried, not really."

"Son, it's on your face as clear as anything," he told Xander. "There's no shame in worrying. Or in admitting your mistakes."

"Mistakes," Xander snorted. "Oh, I'm all about the mistakes, over here."

Xander stopped himself for a second. His mouth was about to keep talking, going into thing with a complete stranger that he hadn't talked about with the people that were like family to him. It wasn't something that he would do, not normally. But, since when did he do anything even in the same universe as normal?

The second was over and, before he could over analyze it any more, he let himself talk.

Looking out the side window, not being able to look at the man next to him when he spoke, Xander said, "Have…have you ever done something that you thought was right, something that didn't feel good, but you thought it was right, only to find out that it wasn't the right thing to do? That what you did really ended up hurting people and now that you have to do what _must_ be done, you're afraid it might hurt everyone around you?"

"That's a very heavy question for someone your age," the man said carefully. "In my experience, there's never a choice between doing what is right and what must be done. What is right is always what must be done. But, it may help if I knew exactly what it was you're talking about."

Sighing, Xander leaned his head back, wincing a bit as he some of the bruises started to make themselves known. "I...I held back. I thought that I was protecting people, I thought I was doing what I was supposed to do, but instead, I think I was just doing it for myself. I kept things from people, the same people that I want to keep safe because I was afraid of how they would react, that they would be afraid of me."

"It sounds to me like you did everything you could tonight," the man told him. Turning his head slightly, he looked at Xander. "Are you saying that you could have done more than you did if you weren't afraid of your friend's reaction?"

"Tonight? No, not really. If I had practiced more, like I should have been, maybe," Xander explained. He turned to face the man and noticed, somewhat oddly, that he never made eye contact with him. Oh, it was close to having the man stare him in the eyes, but Xander found that it was always focused at a point just above his eyes. It was strange, but he didn't give it another thought.

"Before tonight, though? I…didn't."

The man was silent, his eyes turned back to the road. The seconds of silence felt like an eternity in the cab of the truck and when he spoke, the man's voice seemed louder than before.

"Then do better," he told him. "Remember those that you couldn't protect, those that fell because of your mistakes, and do better. I don't know if what happened was your fault, but I know that if you tried, if you truly tried, then there is nothing more that could be asked of you. He is always forgiving, remember that."

"Um…not that I don't appreciate the ride and the help and everything, and I really hope that it doesn't turn out that you're a cult leader or anything, but whose this 'He' that you keep going on about?"

Shaking his head, somewhat sadly again, the man turned the truck onto the road leading to Sunnydale. They were close now and they could both make out the sign for Sunnydale in the distance.

"God," he told him. "I know that your kind doesn't hold much weight in the matter of the Lord, but he that doesn't mean that he doesn't care."

"God? As in, um…God, God?" Xander, giving it a little thought, shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, I guess if Holy water and crosses work on vampires, it would have to have some kind of power behind."

"Yes, it does. Though, He does more than simply give us the tools to fight evil, young man. Believe me, He's always there, watching out for us. Or do you think it was simply coincidence that I was where I was tonight?"

"You're saying God told you to go out into the middle of the desert and wait for me?" Xander asked with more than a little disbelief.

"No, of course not," he scoffed. "He merely provided it in the way he does most things. Only the most important things would the Lord speak directly to me about. This was merely something that needed to happen, I see that now."

Eyes wide, Xander resisted the urge to call the man next to him a crazy person. Usually when someone said that they spoke to God, it was a sure sign that they hadn't been taking their meds, but stranger things had happened. _Much_ stranger things in recent months. And his talk about the Holy water and crosses was true. They couldn't very well work if there wasn't something behind them. But, the nature of God, _the_ God, wasn't something that came up very often in his group. Maybe they all didn't want to think about what other things were out there if it was true. Or maybe they just didn't want to think about what kind of God would let the things that have happened in their lives happen, especially if he did take an active role in the world.

Deciding not to press the issue, Xander let it go. The man didn't seem like a psycho-nut, and if he was, Xander had his one arm ready to go with an air strike if need be. Besides, they had already passed into town and it wouldn't be long before they got to the edge of the forest on the other side of town. Though, the "Your kind" comment did kind of confuse him. But, if he was some religious nut, albeit a religious nut that knew about the supernatural, he may have something against anyone with extraordinary powers. Like religion, it was probably best not to get into that, exactly. However, there was one thing that he may be able to offer some light on from his unique perspective.

"Can I ask you something?" Waiting till he got the nod of the head, Xander asked, "God…I mean, you believe in him, that's obvious. But…what does he say about killing…things?"

"Have you taken a life?" he asked, his expression pained slightly.

"Well, I guess that depends on your definition of life," Xander said.

"The vampires?" the man asked, slightly confused. When he spoke next, his tone was anything but soft or kind. "Young man, I don't know how long you've known about, well, everything you know. But, vampires are most certainly not alive. They are an abomination against the almighty, all of them."

"I, uh, take it you've had some experience with them?"

"You could most certainly say that," he ground out.

At least the anger wasn't directed at him, as far as Xander could tell.

"I mean, trust me, I don't have any love for vampires, not a single solitary one of them. But…I just don't know how to kill them. I mean, I know _how _to kill them, but…it's complicated."

The truck stopped at a red light, and the man turned his head to Xander. "Yes, I have killed. I do not take pride in it, I do not revel in it, but if I had to take each and every one of those lives again, I would do so without hesitation. And before you ask, it is not because He demands it, but because it was necessary. If there had been another way, I would have done so. Things such as vampires, monsters, fairies, and the Fallen…they aren't just unnatural, they harm people and they do so out of amusement. You wonder if you can kill them, and rightfully so. I would be worried about anyone who did so without giving it the slightest thought. But, what you have to ask yourself, is if you can stop them, and don't, can you live with yourself?

"Now, I'm not telling you what to do, one way or the other. That can only be your decision and yours alone. And I'm also not telling you to rush headlong into a situation that you can't possibly handle. But, you must make a choice. We all do."

The light changed to green and they started moving again. Xander sat mulling over the man's words, letting the town pass by his window. It wasn't long before the truck pulled to a stop once again, this time in the middle of the street. Blinking, Xander looked around, before turning to his companion, wondering why they stopped.

"I believe," the man said nodding his head towards the windshield, "that we have found your friend."

Following his gaze, Xander was surprised, but not as much as he should have been, to see Buffy walking down the street. She was on patrol, or at least looking for someone. She kept darting her head back and forth every so often, looking between houses, into backyards, as she moved away from the truck.

"Huh, well, that was lucky." Xander felt a bit of the tension come back to him as he watched Buffy. A knot formed in his stomach as his brain started to fill with various images of violence that Buffy might visit on him. Pushing them down with a shake of his head, he unbuckled his seat belt.

"Will you two be alright getting home from here?" the man asked. "This town…" he trailed off, glaring out the window at the town in general.

"No, we'll be fine. Thanks, though." Xander stuck out his hand which was met with a strong, hearty shake by the man. "For everything, really."

"Think nothing of it. I hope you find the answers you're looking for."

"You and me both." Xander gave him a half smile and prepared to leave, stopping when the man placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Here, take this," the man told him handing him a business card. "If you need anything, anything at all, feel free to call. I have more experience with what you're going through than you can imagine and, if there's anything I can't help with, I have a friend who is…let's just say, he runs in your circles more than I do."

Thanking him again, Xander got out of the pick-up and watched as it drove down the block and disappeared as it turned a corner, heading back out of town. Stuffing the card into his pants pocket, he made his way towards Buffy. He shivered a bit as the cool night air hit his exposed skin, but without any thing to do about it, he just kept moving.

He wasn't more than ten feet away before Buffy tensed up a bit as her Slayer training kicked in and alerted her to someone coming up from behind. Xander knew better than to try sneaking up on her at a time like this. It was an easy way to end up with a broken jaw or some other injury.

At five feet, Buffy whirled around, dropping into a defensive stance with a stake at the ready. When her eyes locked onto his, she relaxed a little, but not much, making Xander stop as well. He felt a bit awkward, having what seemed like a stand-off between him and Buffy, but making the first move seemed too hard at the moment. He wanted to move, but with the way she was looking at him, he was almost afraid to.

Finally, she stood up straight, but she didn't put the stake away or move closer to him. Her eyes roamed over his body, taking in the state of his tattered clothing and bandages.

There weren't any words exchanged between them, just looks. Xander noticed that she had changed into different clothing from what she had on before and she looked like she had cleaned up some. Even so, her eyes still looked a bit tired and it made Xander wonder exactly how long he had been gone. It hadn't been days, he knew that much. But if it had been hours, had Buffy been out here that whole time looking for him? If she had, just what did she plan to do to him now that she found him?

She started towards him, slowly at first, but without hesitation in her steps. When she stood in front of him, looking up into his eyes, Xander wasn't ashamed to say that he was a bit scared. The way her eyes stared into his, her face set in an almost expressionless mask, unnerved him. If she made a move against him, he wouldn't stop her. He wouldn't raise a hand to strike her or anything like that. He'd probably even let her get a few shots in before he made a run for it again.

After what seemed like forever, Buffy took a deep breath. Xander flinched, expecting the worst. Even so, when the strike came, he wasn't prepared for it.

"Ow!" Xander exclaimed, rubbing his shoulder.

"You deserve it," Buffy shot back, folding her arms. "Jerk."

He continued rubbing his shoulder, saying seriously, "I know. I'm…I'm sorry."

"You should be."

Looking at the ground, Xander tried to come up with something to say, but was at a loss. Luckily, Buffy seemed to take pity on him.

She started walking past him, stopped a few steps away and turned her head back to him. "Well, are you coming or not? I'm pretty sure Giles would like to get some sleep tonight, Willow and Oz, too. They should all be back at the apartment by now."

Blinking, Xander caught up with Buffy, still a little bewildered at how she seemed to be letting everything go. Of course, he should have known better than that.

"And then you can explain why you've been lying and holding things back from all of us," Buffy told him, emphasizing her words with another shot in the arm, making Xander stumble a bit.

As they made their way to the apartment, Xander had two thoughts as he rubbed his arm. The first was, why was it always the short ones who were so violent? The second was a bit more puzzling - which was, just how did his mystery friend find Buffy? For that matter, how did he even know how to get through the town without asking Xander for even the slightest amount of directions?

* * *

It was too damn late for this, Lilah thought. Considering it was four in the morning, maybe that made it too early. Either way, the whole damn thing put her in a bad mood. And when Lilah was in a bad mood, everyone was going to feel it. As it was, she was probably going to hear it from Holland about the intern that had gotten in her way at the office. If anything, she'd blame it on the kid's own stupidity. After all, everyone who got clearance to work in the firm was told to keep out of the third floor conference room after midnight until the morning crew could come and clean out the Hell Spawn for the next day's meetings.

Jason had called her around three hours ago, catching her just before she left the office. It was just as well, she would have hated for all the prep work she had just been doing for her cases the following morning to have actually been put to use. But, the Harris situation took precedence. Holland would find someone to take care of her cases or get a postponement for a day or two, she was sure of that. But the lack of sleep might make her sloppy or jump to the wrong conclusion and make a mistake. _That_ would not be something he would forgive.

The news from Jason couldn't have been worse, she mused as she made the turn off the highway and towards the house the firm had bought. Harris, despite their best efforts, didn't seem to be turning away from his powers as they had hoped. Instead, the little brat had done the exact opposite. Sure, it saved him from dying in an inferno which would have been equally as bad, but it still didn't work into their bottom line. If Harris had stopped doubting himself and was starting to work towards mastering the elements again, that would seriously mess up their plans for him.

It was exactly why she had hung up the phone on the man and made the drive out here at the ungodly hour of night.

As she swung the car into the driveway of the house, she saw Jason leaning in doorway, arms folded. He gave her a respectful nod when she got out, one that Lilah returned with a glare. It didn't soften when he reached inside only to pull out a mug of coffee, handing it to her as she approached. It did, however, make her jerk back in surprise, eyeing the mug suspiciously.

"I thought you could use it after the long drive," he told her simply. "I have a pot keeping warm inside if you'd like some more. It seemed like it could be of some use today."

He pushed the cup towards her and she grabbed hold of it instinctively. As Jason went inside the house, Lilah followed, still staring at the cup in her hands.

"Don't think this earns you any brownie points," she told him harshly, trying to regain her edge after the odd act from the man. "You people fucked up royally this time."

Jason nodded his head slightly. "Things have progressed far from where we want them, yes. But, they are still able to be pulled back from the brink of failure. We both know that."

Snorting, Lilah raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "The only reason everybody involved in this little operation hasn't been flambéed is because my boss doesn't know this has happened yet. If I decide the plan is botched, I won't be the one taking the heat for this, you can be sure of that."

As per usual, Jason didn't respond to the threat. At first, Lilah had been mildly impressed when the man showed no reaction to anything that was going on around him, except for those brief moments of mild annoyance. Now it got on her nerves, seeing his neutral face all the damn time. She was used to the fear she inspired from those that worked under her when she was angry. Hell, she was used to it from a good deal of people that worked _with_ her. But Jason didn't even have the decency to pretend to kowtow around her.

He did, however, have more brains than any of the people she usually had to put up with, so that made it slightly easier to deal with.

"It's far from over," Jason told her again. "If anything, this could be used to our advantage."

"Really?" Lilah said raising an eyebrow. "How exactly does this help us? Does having Harris find and bury us under a tsunami help the end game? Does having Harris become too powerful to be pulled to our side, help us?"

"That isn't what I-"

"I don't care what you meant, got it?" Lilah told him, cutting him off. "I care about fixing this."

"That's exactly what I'm talking about Ms. Morgan." Jason said. "Phase two would just need to be moved up and a bit. Phase three, I admit, would need some tweaking, but it's completely doable."

Lilah took a sip of the coffee - which was really quite - good in order to get her thoughts together. Jason wasn't wrong. The same idea had come to Lilah as she made her way over here and had even come up with several ideas how to implement such plan. There were also several dozen back-up plans, most of which involved shifting the blame to everyone else and saving her own ass.

The biggest hitch with upping the time frame on all of this was that it wasn't just up to her, she had other people that she needed to confirm this with before moving along. Not Holland, no, he wouldn't care how it was done so long as it _was_ done. In fact, he would probably be happy that things were progressing quicker than anticipated. The people that needed to be convinced were key to the third phase of the plan. Without their go ahead, it wouldn't work.

She needed more time, more information.

"Where is everyone? Get them down here, now," Lilah ordered.

"Faith is upstairs in her room, and should be down in a moment. I have no doubt that she's been listening in ever since you arrived. But, I would advise against letting Ethan out of the basement. The rest of the house hasn't been warded against magic from within and the last thing we need is for him to do something…unexpected."

"Fine, yeah, let the little rat stay where he is," Lilah said shaking her head. "Wait, where the hell is Lindsey?"

Jason sighed, and gave a slight shrug of his shoulders. "At the moment, I can only assume that he's in that bar he likes to frequent when he isn't working."

"He's in a _bar_?" Lilah asked feeling a headache coming on. "Why the hell isn't he here? You're supposed to be keeping everyone in line, keeping them working!"

"I thought it best that he wasn't here when you arrived," Jason said simply. "Considering all of the bad blood between you two, and the fact that Lindsey wasn't involved in this particular setback, I didn't see the need with him being here. It didn't seem…prudent."

He was right and Lilah knew it, but didn't mean that she like him any better for it. Sure, it might not add anything to planning what they needed to do and would probably only get in their way of doing anything productive, but a part of her had been looking forward to seeing Lindsey. Needling him, letting him know that he only continued to live because she wanted him to, it all would have made her feel that much better. Rubbing it in his face that she got what he worked so hard because she had been better than him, smarter than him. That she played the game better than he ever could.

Now, because of Jason's logic, she had been denied that little bit of happiness. It didn't matter how right he was, she had still been looking forward to it.

As heavy boots thudded down the steps, Lilah smirked internally, taking another sip of the coffee. If Lindsey wasn't here, she supposed that just meant she'd have to take her anger out on someone else.

"Faith," Lilah said with a fake smile as the dark haired Slayer came down stairs. "Care to tell me exactly how you manage to screw up the very simple job we gave you? I mean, let's be honest, you aren't exactly here for your brains, kiddo, but we thought that you'd at least be able to handle distracting Harris." Now, her smile turned cold, saying, "I didn't think that laying on your back would be that difficult for you given your…past."

Lilah took no small amount of satisfaction out of Faith's reaction. She saw her tense and the fire enter her eyes. There was no doubt that Faith wanted nothing more than to rip her apart and beat her to death, but she didn't. Something kept the young woman from moving against her and it was exactly what Lilah wanted to see. Fear. The fear of having what she wanted most in the world taken away from her, of having even worse things done to her. Her own imagination kept her in on a leash, if only barely.

At one point in her life, even just a few short months ago, Lilah would have felt bad about exploiting Faith in this way. Now, she not only didn't care, she enjoyed the fear that it instilled in the girl. She'd enjoy it even more if Faith had actually done her damn job, but this was something at least.

"Alright, so, what happened?" Lilah asked.

"It seems that Harris has been practicing in secret," Jason said. "At roughly nine o'clock last night, there was a sudden fire in the forest on the edge of Sunnydale. Shortly after the fire spread, it was put out by a large amount of salt water. Some of which was frozen. When I first got to the scene, there was snow on the ground and the remnants of a fight.

"The fire spread quickly. Before it was put out, the fire was the size of two square acres and had grown to that size in a matter of minutes. While forest fires in Southern California do spread quickly, I don't think this was an ordinary one. The fire wasn't natural, and neither was the means of putting it out."

Lilah couldn't stop her eyes widening slightly. "You mean to tell me that we didn't just stop Harris from practicing with Air and Water, but that he's actually learned how to Firebend as well?"

Jason shook his head in a barely perceivable way. "It seems unlikely. Given our information on the Avatar, he shouldn't be able to learn Firebending till after he learns Earthbending. Since there weren't any signs of displaced earth, it doesn't appear that he set the fire. Putting it out, however, is a completely different story."

"Also, there seemed to be some…unusual traces where the fire originated."

"Magic?"

"It's certainly my guess, but I wasn't able to investigate long. It seems that the state sent in troopers and out of town officials to investigate since the fire spread past the town limits. They're…a bit more thorough than the Sunnydale police force. I had a hard enough time getting past their roadblocks undetected."

"What in the hell have you people been doing here?" Lilah demanded. "You're supposed to be making sure that nothing happens to Harris that might actually hurt the bastard," she said, pointing as Jason. "And you're supposed to be making sure he's too busy screwing and doubting himself so he won't practice," she added, pointing her finger at Faith.

"Hey, I tried, alright!" Faith shot back. "He's being all noble or some shit. I tried everything short sneaking into his bed at night, but he won't take 'yes' for an answer."

"And whose fault is that, hmm? You said you'd have no problem keeping him off his game. You're the one who said you had him wrapped around your finger. If you can't get the job done, then what use are you? Are you _trying _to screw this up? Do you _want_ to be sent back home?"

The anger in Faith's body suddenly drained away along with her color. Whatever argument she had died in her throat with Lilah's threat. Lilah wasn't actually afraid of what Faith might do if she got angry enough. After all, that's what Jason was there for. He could have easily handled the Slayer with a bare minimum of effort. But, Lilah wanted Faith to know that she didn't need the man to take care of her, that Lilah could do worse to her than any beating from the stoic man could hand her. The part that made the threat all the more effective was that both women knew that Lilah wasn't bluffing. That fear, the reality that the firm could essentially strip Faith of her power and send her back home was very real indeed.

Watching as the words sunk in, Lilah made a decision.

"I need to make a phone call."

Without another word, Lilah stepped out of the living room and into the kitchen. She considered going into a room with a door, but with Faith's hearing, and probably Jason's as well, it wouldn't have mattered. They could both hear her, no matter where she was in the house, most likely. It didn't matter, not since they could only hear her side of the conversation. No matter how good their senses might be, Wolfram and Hart enspelled all of their workers cell phones to be eavesdrop proof, both by mystical, electronic, and supernatural means.

After keying in the code to ensure that no one was listening in or tracing her phone, Lilah hit one of the many numbers on her speed dial and waited. After a few clicks, the line started ringing. It wasn't long before someone picked up.

"It's Morgan," Lilah said. "I need you get a message to your boss. Tell her that things have changed and the time tables been moved up."

She waited a few minutes while the message was relayed. When what could only be described as 'the receptionist' came back on the line, she was greeted with a grunt of acknowledgement.

"She has a week from today to get everything in order. I'll be waiting for her. She'll know the place."

Not bothering to wait for the message to be passed on, Lilah hung up the phone. It was annoying having to speak through someone else to have a simple conversation, but it was a small price to pay. Out of everyone involved, Lilah had no doubt about the other woman coming through on her part of the deal and getting everything they needed together. So what if she didn't care for technology? The woman was a cold hearted, manipulative bitch who got the job done. Lilah could respect that. That being said, having her not get a phone or, God forbid, use a damn computer was annoying as hell.

Still, it was Wolfram and Hart that thought to put her in Sunnydale to keep the demon community under control and she had done just that. The Mayor's forced early retirement had left a power vacuum that needed to be filled. With Harris and his little group always running into the mix, it would have only been a matter of time before one of the many up and coming demons or vampires took him down. They couldn't have that, now could they? It had been easy enough to slip one of their own onto the Hellmouth and, shockingly, even easier for the woman to take over.

Lilah smiled slightly. This could work. This could definitely work.

Walking back into the living room, she dropped the smile and took on her annoyed persona again.

"Alright, listen up, people. We don't have a lot of time to clean up this mess and unless all of us want to end up spending some quality time in our own personal hells, then I suggest you start doing exactly what I tell you." She waited a moment, making sure to lock eyes with Faith before continuing. "In a week, we'll be moving into the next phase."

"A week?" Jason asked raising an eyebrow.

Turning her icy glare on him, Lilah said, "Yes, a week. Or were you under the impression that the plan has changed in some way?"

As expected, Jason didn't wilt under her gaze. He shrugged, almost unnoticeably, but remained silent.

"You," Lilah said pointing at Jason. "Find Lindsey and get him back here. You know what you'll have to have him do. I'm sure even Lindsey can manage it."

Turning and pointing sharply at Faith, she opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by the teenager.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Grab Xander, get physical with him, and get him to stop training. I fucked up before, you don't have to remind me," Faith said, folding her arms and looking pissed.

Snorting, Lilah looked at her as if she was stupid. "Kid, I don't know what you've been told, but you're not that good in bed, no one is. Just worry about getting as close as you can to him. Physically, emotionally, anything you can get, take it. Don't bother trying to get him off training. It doesn't look like it would matter at this point."

Jason spoke up, cutting off any remarks Faith looked ready to make. "Am I to assume that in a week's time that she'll be ready?"

Nodding, Lilah let the smirk fall back onto her lips. "Trust me. In a week, she'll have the…package delivered. If everything goes according to plan - which it better, this time - we'll all get exactly what we deserve."


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: I live! Or...something close to it anyway. Life is kicking my head in as of late, so updates are going to be further apart than I'd like. So, I hope you can all bear with me. So, let's keep this short and sweet. Thanks to everyone who's reading and especially those that hit that little review button cause, come on, who doesn't like hearing some feedback? Also, one of you readers called Wesley's family history but...well, I can't remember who it was so go you!...whoever you were. Sorry about that. Anyway, hope you all enjoy and like I said, feedback is always welcome.

Chapter 17

Taking in a deep breath of the evening air, Xander tried hard to steady himself. The smell the ocean was especially strong with the light breeze coming off it bringing in the scent of salt-water, sea weed, and various other things. With the sound of the waves crashing onto the beach providing a pleasant white noise, it was all rather peaceful. Clearing his thoughts should have been easy with this kind of background, but so much had happened in the past two days that he was having a bit of trouble finding his center. He was beginning to think his life was going to be a continuous series of bursts of insanity followed by agonizing clean-up from whatever mess had happened, along with short lulls of peace. It had been that way since meeting Buffy, when he thought about it. But since becoming the Avatar, or rather, since he found out about it, things had started getting even crazier than usual.

The 'talk' he had with Giles, Buffy, Willow, and Oz had quickly progressed into a full on confrontation. He did his best to keep his cool, he really did, but he wasn't all that successful. There had been some yelling, some accusations, on both sides and not all of it was unwarranted. Xander couldn't deny that he had kept things from all of them, that he had been holding back exactly what he was capable of. There was no hiding it now, not after Buffy had seen him in action. While some of his anger that night had come out of fear, knowing that didn't help him any. He had countered with them being afraid of what he could, if not himself. He hadn't mentioned Giles threatening to take him down if he proved to be too powerful, but the look he had given the older man conveyed the message well enough.

It wasn't long before things really started to go downhill. Buffy, Giles, and himself all began yelling at once. Willow and, unsurprisingly, Oz had remained rather quiet at the time. Oz, well, that was his usual state of being. He sat back, observed and waited till there was a moment where he could step in and maybe get people to calm down. Willow, however, hadn't been nearly as patient as her boyfriend. She waited only a couple of minutes before commanding everyone's attention when, almost completely out of character, she walked up and slapped him, shocking everyone into silence. It was then followed by a nearly bone crushing hug, which caught him off guard almost as much as the slap, nearly knocking them both to the ground.

Things calmed down after that. Willow played moderator of sorts, making sure everyone kept their cool. When any of them started to get a little too testy, she would level them with a glare. Though, the few times that Xander got heated, it earned him a light whack in the stomach _and_ a Willow certified look.

At the end of it, things weren't completely fixed between every-one. There was still a lot of tension on both sides. It wasn't something that was going to get better over night, but it was better than it had been. The secrets and concerns were all out in the open now, which should have been comforting, but it wasn't. Instead, it was more confusing than ever. Everyone was tense and looking at each other oddly by the time they ended it all out of exhaustion.

Giles, once everyone had been seen out, did the last thing Xander had expected the man to do. He apologized. There weren't any more words spoken that night, but it went a long way towards repairing the damage each of them had unknowingly done. In fact, it was the very reason that Xander was standing here, on the beach on a Saturday evening just after sundown. Giles wanted to see exactly what it was he could do and he was going to show them, all of them.

He stood facing the ocean, still trying to calm himself to do what he wanted. Off to the side, roughly fifteen feet away, Buffy, Angel, and Faith stood holding various practice weapons. A baseball bat, in Faiths hand, a pair of training daggers for Buffy, and what looked like a beaten and dulled short sword for Angel. Giles, Willow, and Oz sat as far up the shoreline as possible while still being able to see everything, Xander had insisted on that. The test, as Giles called it, was for any of the three warriors to tag Xander with their weapon in a vital area or, barring that, to take him down and get him in a submission hold. If they succeeded, the test would end and Giles would evaluate just how far advanced Xander seemed to be. Out of his three opponents, only Buffy hadn't chuckled when Xander had asked how they would know when he won.

Turning, Xander faced his three opponents and settled his mind as best he could. If they wanted to see what he could do, then he would show them. Damn be to the consequences at this point. He just needed his mind clear enough so he didn't over extend his bending and end op taking off someone's arm, rather than simply disarming them.

"_Damn it. My best lines are wasted on myself!" _he thought with a sigh.

Bowing slightly, showing that he was ready, Xander was mildly surprised to see Angel actually return the bow. Buffy and Faith gripped their weapons tighter. Without further fanfare, the fight began.

Faith was the first out of the gate, running in a full sprint towards him, holding the bat as if she planned on taking his head off. When she got close enough to swing at him, he would have had to been blind, deaf, and possibly brain damaged not to see it coming. Faith wasn't subtle with her fighting style. She was a brawler, but a damn good one. What she lacked in finesse, she made up for with speed, strength, and just plan ingenuity. It was easy enough to move out of the way of the bat, but Faith had anticipated it and followed it up with a short kick aimed for Xander's kidney. It would have been effective, had he only moved out of range of the bat. Instead, Xander had spun away from the wild swing, putting him further from her foot than she expected. He considered playing with her a bit, but decided against it. It wouldn't do any good for their friendship if he toyed with her like this. Her pride was important to her.

Besides, Buffy and Angel were bound to have started towards him at this point.

With a hard wave of air aimed at the ground in front of him, Xander kicked up a sand storm that effectively blinded the dark haired Slayer, giving him the distraction he needed to focus on the other two.

He could have simply turned around, but he felt like showing off a bit. After all, that was the point, wasn't it? Jumping high into the air, Xander did a simple twist, end over end, letting him get a brief glimpse of the make-shift battle field. Angel and Buffy had been trying to come at him from either side. That plan had been put to an end, since Xander now stood where they had been at the start, grinning cheekily.

"I would love to drag this out, but I think that would go against the whole idea, don't you think?" Xander asked with mock innocence.

Righting themselves, Buffy and Angel started towards Xander once again and was joined shortly by Faith who was moving a bit slower, more cautious, and was spitting sand out of her mouth, glaring daggers at him.

"Xander, I swear if you give me hypothermia again, I'm going to kill you," Buffy told him harshly.

"Hey, what do you take me for?" Xander said clutching his chest, pretending to be hurt. "You honestly think I would do something like that, again? I mean, I'm not some one trick pony here. I've got two, maybe even _three_ completely separate tricks."

"Is one of them shutting up?" Faith shot, spitting out a bit more sand.

Angel rushed forward, trying to catch him with his guard down. "As a matter of fact," Xander said with a smirk, dodging left and right, barely keeping ahead of the vampire's slashes, jabs, and lunges, "I don't think it is."

It was much harder with Angel as his opponent than Faith. For starters, he had more experience than the younger Slayer. His fighting style was all controlled savagery, something that Xander could now appreciate as being beautiful in its own way. Each move was done to effectively take him out with the minimum of effort, but also to set the vampire up for a block or another strike, should he need it. Xander knew that Angel would be able to work around his new found speed and catch him sooner or later, but he would put money on it being later. But, it wasn't just Angel he was fighting and he already caught Buffy out of the corner of his eye, moving in to strike. Even if Faith was going to wait for an opening before making her next move, he really needed to end this. And, if he was going to end it, he was going to do it in _spectacular _fashion.

One of the advantages of Airbending was that people forget exactly how powerful it can be. They see an Airbender knock people or things around, send out a few gust of wind, or run really fast and they all clap their hands, thinking how great the little Airbender was with a seemingly powerless element. But what most people forget is that air is everywhere. One of things that Aang had toyed with was just how to use that, with coming up with new Airbending moves. Of course, then he had been trapped in an iceberg and the war had happened, so new moves had to wait.

Xander, however, had nothing but time on his hands at times.

With one more dodge and spin, Xander took off at a dead run, heading away from his three opponents. He ran till he was well past where he had started. Instead of stopping, he made a sharp turn and started back the way he came. He hadn't had a chance to try this out and hoped that he didn't screw it up to much. Though, if he was going to do something potentially dangerous, he may as well do it to someone who was already dead.

He kicked up the speed and pointed himself at Angel. At the last moment, Xander jumped over the tensed undead man as he tried to take a swing at him. Not slowing down in the least when he landed, he kept on running, pulling the air that he had disturbed along with him. As he started for the ocean, Xander heard yelling behind him and chanced a look to see if it had worked. It took everything in him not to jump for joy at what he saw. The only thing that stopped him was the knowledge that doing so would stop the whole thing. Trailing behind him, riding a cushion of air, was a completely baffled and worried Angel.

At the speed he was going, Xander wasn't afraid of dropping into the water. He didn't know if the Angel would ride along over the water or if he would drop in, but when he looked behind him again, he was happy to see the vampire was still a good seven feet behind him and coasting along the ocean, the air cushion spraying water all around. Like an air scooter, though, it wasn't going to last forever. So, for the next part of his master plan, Xander did what any good Waterbender would do. He stopped short.

The wave of water he managed to kick up at his current speed was impressive, as was the thick ice it formed before falling back into the ocean. The landing could have gone better, Xander admitted, but at least when both he and Angel slammed into the newly formed ice wall, it didn't crack or break apart.

"I really didn't know if that was going to work," Xander said with a grin, turning his head to Angel as the two men laid on their stomachs, slightly stunned by the sudden stop.

"You didn't know?" Angel asked blinking salt water out of his eyes.

"Well, I had a good idea about it," Xander told him conversationally. "It's the same thing as pulling my staff to me, only…bigger."

Angel went to stand up, realized that he was standing on a sheet of ice and stopped. Getting into his knees, being very careful not to make any sudden moves, Angel moved out to the edge of the small sheet of ice and stared out towards the beach.

"A little less than a mile." Rolling onto his back, Xander stood up without a care. He could still slip, if he wasn't careful, but with a bit of Waterbending, he was able to keep the ice from melting too much under his feet.

"So…do we wait for the tide or just swim for it?" Angel asked. The look he shot Xander probably would have made him feel bad if he hadn't already known what he was going to do. Besides, he was keeping them from slipping off the ice into the water, so that made them even in his book.

"Well, we could swim there," Xander said grinning evilly, "but, I was thinking of something a little more…showy."

Pointing himself towards land, Xander raised his arms at his sides, leaning back slightly. The water began to swell, rocking the small patch of ice back and forth. Keeping himself steady, Xander couldn't help but smirk as Angel slid around a bit, hanging onto the edge of the ice to keep himself from being thrown over. The sudden roar of water coming at them made Angel turn his head despite himself.

"You might want to hang on to something!" Xander yelled over the sound of the wave rushing up behind them.

He felt the water heading towards him with increasing speed and strength. At the final moment, just before the wave swept them up, Xander leaned forward while his arms shot out behind him. The ice sheet rose up the wave till it rested on the crest of it, riding it as it sped onwards.

It took a lot of control to keep the wave from crashing right in the middle of the ocean with Xander and Angel riding on top of it, but it was simple as well. Waterbending was all about the distribution of energy. Calling up the wave was easy. What made it difficult was the wave _wanted_ to crash. It took effort to keep the wave up and in control. As it moved across the water, it built up strength grew. If a Waterbender let their control slip a bit in one direction, the wave could get out of control and, if it didn't fall under its own size, it could easily do more damage than was intended and even pull the bender under when it finally crashed. Too little in the other direction, and the wave wouldn't have enough strength to keep going. There was a delicate balance of pulling in water towards the wave and pushing out just enough to keep it from growing to insane proportions.

When they reached the shore, Xander was grinning like a maniac at the look on everyone's faces. While the wave wasn't nearly as big as the one he had produced back on the bluffs, it was still an impressive eight feet high and the speed was more than enough to make up for its lack of height.

Buffy was already running up the beach by the time Faith snapped out of it and tried to run, but by then it was too late. The wave hit land and kept going, sweeping Faith from her feet. She wouldn't be dragged out to sea, but she wouldn't be too happy with all the salt water she was bound to swallow. Even so, Xander started pushing down the water, quickly dissipating its strength. Buffy was too far up the beach to be hit by the wave at this point, anyway, not unless he wanted to risk Giles, Willow, and Oz getting swept up, too.

Flipping off of the ice sheet, Xander let it, and Angel, fall away into the receding water, giving it a quick push away as he pushed off with a burst of Airbending. He landed in a crouch, knee deep in water and facing Buffy, who was still completely dry without even her feet touching the water. Her daggers were held in a ready position, one up in a defensive position and the held lower to the ground, pointed up for a quick stab. The daggers may be only used for training, but Buffy could still hurt him with them easily enough. Not that she would be aiming to do that, but things happen in the heat of the moment.

Most of the water had flowed back into the ocean as the tides returned to normal. The only bit that remained was the four foot circle of water that Xander kept around him, still up to his knees. His arms where held loosely out in front of him, swaying back and forth slightly, keeping the water in place.

"I thought you weren't just a one hit wonder," Buffy said slightly annoyed, but with a hint of teasing.

"Hey, I just pulled someone else along in the wake of a slipstream. I'd say that's pretty damn different!" Xander replied. "Besides, I got bored."

"I can fix that," Buffy told him.

She rushed forward, faster than Xander had been prepared for, but not so much that he couldn't make up for it. He sent forth a large whip of water, waiting for Buffy to dodge it. When she moved left, he smirked, and pulled the whip in that direction, planning to grab her up with it. His smirk quickly vanished as her move turned out to be a fake. Instead of going left, Buffy rolled right and the water whip sailed right over her.

He tried to shift the whip, but there wasn't enough time. Buffy had already gotten to her feet and was almost on top of him. Xander let the water fall to the sand and concentrated on not letting Buffy tag him with her blades. Her speed and reflexes made it nearly impossible for most of her opponents to win. Xander, however, was more agile than she was, which only made the Slayer fall back to her two real advantages, her strength and her experience.

Each time Xander moved out of the way of one of her strikes, Buffy would already be sending another to where he was stepping. He was barely keeping himself out of harm's way and she wasn't giving him a moment to get his bearings to launch his own counter attack. He was so busy with his own footing that he hadn't been paying close enough attention to hers. Stepping back to avoid a nasty backfist, Xander didn't notice Buffy aiming a low kick to his shin. The hit unbalanced him more than actually hurt, which was when Buffy hit him in the shoulder with the pommel of one of her daggers.

Xander stumbled back, but stayed on his feet, just barely. Buffy, however, wasn't giving him a second to breath. Faith and Angel seemed to have recovered enough to re-enter the fight as well and were both headed in their direction, soaking wet and looking ready to kill him. Faith more so than Angel, but she always did lead with her emotions.

'_Alright, enough of this,'_ Xander thought, keeping his eyes on Buffy as she rushed him. _'Time to end it.'_

Leaping high, Xander went up and over Buffy, barely making it and forcing her to stop short. The sand would give her a bit of a problem and even though Faith and Angel were closing in, he still would have a second or two before anyone got within striking distance.

The water he had kept with him from the massive wave had been seeping into the sand without his bending holding it in place. It was still there and in easy reach, though, and pulling it from ground would be faster than drawing the water from the ocean, since time was of the essence if he wanted to pull off his next move. He had only practiced this particular move once or twice, but he wasn't worried about executing it, he was just hoping he could do it before everyone converged on him at once.

Raising his arms, he quickly pulled the water from beneath the sand and towards him, feeling the liquid as it swirled around him. Buffy and the rest were only a few feet from him, forcing him to rush. It wasn't enough water to do the form completely, but it was enough to make it work.

Eight short, thick tendrils of water formed around Xander's body, moving back and forth with each arm movement. He didn't give anyone a chance to react before attacking. Three arms of water shot out, knocking all of his opponents to the ground. With another movement, the whips wrapped around Buffy, Faith, and Angel and pulled them up into the air, pinning their arms to their sides, before freezing and trapping them in place. Just for kicks, and possibly because he might have a tiny bit of a death wish, he froze Faith in place upside down.

With the three of them effectively taken out of the picture, Xander smiled to himself. Letting the remaining water arms shift back and forth around him, he watched as Buffy and Faith struggled against the ice holding them, to no avail. Angel, oddly enough, simply sighed loudly and seemed to be waiting for Xander to let them all down.

"Alright, I think we're done!" Xander called out to the three people watching them.

"Let me down!" Faith yelled, wiggling to try and free herself, much to Xander's own amusement.

"Not till you promise not to kill me!" he shouted back.

Giles, Willow, and Oz came down the beach, Willow helping Oz in his wheelchair, in various states of shock and amazement. He turned away from Faith's yelling and threats, grinning widely. Giles and Willow approached the ice holding Buffy, Faith, and Angel in midair. Willow's eyes were wide while Giles had taken his glasses off, circling each of the ice whips, speechless. Letting the liquid water fall, Xander took a few steps back to let Giles and Willow continue inspecting the ice. He didn't know what they could possibly tell by looking at it, but he wanted them to do whatever they wanted. Besides, Faith really did need the time to think about not killing him.

Coming to stand next to Oz's chair, Xander asked, "So, how fast should I run when I let her down?"

"That depends on your survival instincts," Oz told him with a shrug. Looking up at where Faith was still struggling against the ice, he added, "Don't know how strong that is with you, though."

"I'm thinking on stopping once I hit New York," Xander told him, seeing the other man's point.

"Nice wave," Oz said.

"Thanks. I wanted to go bigger, but didn't want to end up flooding the whole beach. It may be easier to do this at night, but changing the shoreline for a few hours might get notice."

"How…just…_how_?" Willow demanded looking at Xander, wide eyed.

"Um," Xander scratched the side of his head, confused. "How, what?"

"Uh, before we start with any conversation, I think it might be best if you let everyone down, don't you, Xander?" Giles said.

Faith had stopped struggling, but was looking hard at the young man in question. He knew that she would never _really_ hurt him, just their definitions on "hurt" differed a bit. Still, he couldn't keep them up there forever.

One by one, he lowered them to the sand, the ice turning to water and falling onto the sand when he was done. When he brought Faith down, he did it with a lot more care, placing her gently into the ground. Once righted and on solid footing again, Xander fully expected her to come at him. The evil, strained smile she gave him instead was somehow worse since it promised that she would still get her revenge, just not now.

Trying desperately to keep as many people between himself and the dark-haired Slayer, Xander stayed next to Oz as Giles and Willow walked over.

"Xander this…this is far more advanced then you led us to believe," Giles said, his voice strange. "Not _once_ did you let on that you were capable of this."

"Um…surprise?"

Giles look wasn't exactly a glare, but the look was far from friendly. There was hurt in his expression, as well as anger, both from being kept in the dark about this. The caviler attitude Xander was having probably didn't help much. It wasn't his fault, though. Xander wanted to take this seriously, but when he started thinking about it too much, it felt as if his head was going to explode. Joking, laughing, and general awkwardness were his nervousness coming to the forefront. Giles, however, didn't seem to care about it that much at the moment.

"How in the world did you manage that thing?" Buffy asked him, coming over along with Angel. "You seemed to have trouble controlling _two_ streams of water before, now your controlling _ten_!"

"Eight, actually," Xander corrected. "It's actually not that hard once you get used to it, but I haven't practiced the Octopus Form with more than eight whips going at once."

"The Octopus Form?" Willow asked, her lips quirking up slightly, while Buffy covered her mouth as she snorted a laugh at the name.

"What would you call it?" Xander asked, frowning as the continued to laugh.

"It's just…cute," Willow said smiling.

"Yeah, it's real cute how he kicked our asses with it," Faith said, folding her arms.

"Is there anything else you failed to show us?" Giles said, cutting through the banter.

Sobering, Xander nodded his head a little. "Like I told Oz, I could have done more with the wave, but I thought it would be a bad idea. Obviously, there's more I can do. Different moves and, uh, things like that…"

Xander trailed off as Giles continued to look hard at him. Everyone else seemed to pick up on the tension and had started to shift uncomfortably since the ex-Watcher wasn't saying anything.

Taking a breath, Giles finally broke the silence. "I see. Well, in that case, perhaps you wouldn't mind continuing with your demonstration. If at all possible, try not and perform the same moves. Buffy, Faith, Angel, if you would."

Giles walked up the beach, back to the designated 'safe area'. Willow gave his shoulder a squeeze in support when she walked past him to help wheel Oz back up the sand to watch as well.

"Think he's ever going to forgive me for keeping this from him?" Xander asked once he was sure Giles was out of ear reach.

"Give him time," Angel said, once again surprising the young man. "If he didn't care, he wouldn't be so hurt."

Xander didn't really know what to say to that, so he didn't bother saying anything and only shrugged his shoulders slightly in response. Angel playing the role of understanding moderator was something of a foreign concept to him. Apparently, it was just as awkward for Angel who didn't say anything further on the subject, walking back to the starting point.

"Alright." Buffy rolled her shoulders a bit. "I guess we should just take it from the top. And this time, no giant tsunamis, got it?" The last part she emphasized with a glare.

"It worked, didn't it?"

Buffy advanced towards him, forcing Xander to back away, hands held up in surrender. She stopped, finally, when they were near the ocean's edge. He was pretty sure that it was because she knew that she wouldn't be able to take him, even in a mock fight, this close to so much water. At least, that had been his thought until she smiled. Xander had exactly half a second to look confused before he was tackled into an oncoming wave by a war crying Faith.

Sitting in the water as waves fell over him, Xander sputtered a bit. He was too stunned by the vision of Faith still sprawled across his lap, drenched from head to toe, her hair sticking to her face. There was something about the mirth and almost child-like glee that showed in her smirk that Xander couldn't help but grin himself, even if he was cold. Buffy's giggling and Faith's playfully shoving him back under the water did help take his mind off of the tension still surrounding their group. Besides, he'd should let them, all of them, enjoy the good times while they could. It probably wouldn't be long before it all went to hell, just like it always did.

Watching Faith get up and walk away, swaying her hips, made Xander stay in the water for a moment longer. It was cold, after all.

* * *

For the past hour Wesley sat in his car outside of Giles garden apartment. Never moving, barely aware of his surroundings, and completely lost in thought. It wasn't the smartest thing to do, by any means, but he hadn't been able to focus too much since he had turned off the car. Considering the various monsters that roamed the streets of Sunnydale at night, it really made him question the results of the IQ exam he had been given back in primary school. Not being a complete idiot however, he made sure a cross and stake were close at hand as well as a dagger that he had taken to strapping to his forearm, due to the insistence of his father.

Yes, his father. The very reason for his hesitation at the moment. Well, not him, exactly, but he was as good a scapegoat as any. He could blame his lack of sleep for making him lethargic and slow to action, but he doubted any amount of jetlag would keep a person trapped in their car. He had barely any sleep in him for awhile now and even though his body was still on London time, he felt the weariness behind his eyes.

He hadn't bothered to phone Rupert about his arrival. He should have, but each time he thought about what he would say, his brain shut down. Nothing he had learned while with his father could be distilled into a simple sentence, or even a complicated paragraph. What could he possibly say that could justify his extended period of absence from his charges and from the Hellmouth? No, this had to be done in person.

Besides, this is where he needed to be. Training his Slayers, doing what he could to help prepare them for what lay ahead of them. And, hopefully, prepare himself as well.

Wesley held his breath as he spotted Xander walking up the path to the apartment; silently berating himself that he hadn't notice the teen's approach before then. He didn't seem in any hurry, which probably ruled out any kind of danger at the moment. That alone was a kind of blessing. Without anything overtly trying to kill all of them, it would be much easier to discuss what Wesley had found out. And if things got dull after that, there were always more subtle things that always tended to lurk in wait of them.

Waiting a few minutes for Xander to get in the door and get a bit more situated, Wesley finally got his head together and grabbed the door handle, readying himself to go inside as well. He was surprised to see the door to the apartment open once more and a rather attractive, older, blonde haired woman quickly left the apartment. Wesley was ready to start laughing, having imagined Xander walking in on Rupert 'entertaining' someone for the evening. That was until the woman got close enough that Wesley recognized her. Why would Buffy's mother be doing here at this time of night? Surely Rupert wouldn't…Joyce would never…

Ignoring and locking away those mental images to hopefully never be seen again, Wesley watched Joyce hurriedly get into her SUV and drive away. While ignorant of the dangers to himself, he wanted to make sure the woman made it to her car safely, at the very least.

Taking a deep, steadying breath, Wesley opened the car door and got out. He hadn't bothered dropping off his luggage at the flat he was renting and had simply driven straight to Giles' from the airport. If he had, he probably would have passed out on the couch and woken up sometime early next century. Despite being wide awake physically, he felt so exhausted mentally that he wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep for weeks on end. Other times, his mind was too busy racing with thoughts, ideas, and information that he felt as if he'd never sleep again. If he did lie down, he'd stare at the ceiling, burning holes in it with the intensity of his thoughts.

As he shut the door to his car, he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the window. He almost didn't recognize the man staring back at him. Oh, there had been no drastic change in him. No new hair cut or clothing. There were no sigils on his body that marked him as some member of a secret cult or scars from battles or anything as physically obvious as that. These were all subtle differences Wesley saw in himself. He still wore a suit, it was only proper after all, but before he had made sure that he was always immaculate. Now, his tie was crooked and loosened to below the collar, which was unbuttoned. His dress shirt was still clean, but hadn't been pressed since he last wore it, making it less crisp than normal and slightly wrinkled.

His face hadn't seen a decent shave in days and the stubble was quite noticeable at this point. While he admitted that it gave him a somewhat roguish appearance, it wasn't the sort of image he wanted to portray. His eyes were the most troubling, in his opinion. Dark circles surrounded them, from both lack of sleep and stress. Wesley tried to force the heavy, weary, look out of them, but was only half as successful as he had hoped.

Closing his tired eyes and counting to ten, he opened them and put on his best official looking face. There was a lot to talk about with Mr. Giles, Xander, and everyone else, and it was best if he went right in and took charge of the situation. He couldn't afford to be so…spineless at this point. He needed to be a better man, a more forward man. He repeated that, over and over again in his mind as he walked up the short pathway leading to the door. Some steel began to form in his back and his chest puffed out a bit. It was a far cry from the same posture he had held when he first arrived in Sunnydale. There was no pomp to it, not grandiose display of a once falsely inflated ego. He could no longer lay claim to those thoughts any more than he could turn back the tides. No, that was something only Xander could do.

It really shouldn't have been that surprising to him, though, that when he reached to knock on the door that it was the exact moment it would open, sending his fist crashing into Xander's nose, eliciting a yelp of pain from the boy. He was, after all, still Wesley Wyndam-Pryce and the universe was never one to let a pratfall go to waste.

"Wesley?" Xander exclaimed, holding his nose, his voice slightly distorted.

"Uh, yes, Xander," Wesley said trying to pick himself up from the young man's feet. Once he was on his feet, he blushed, embarrassed, thanking Xander quietly for his help.

"Not a problem. Anything for someone who just punched me in the nose," Xander replied glibly, waving it off with his free hand.

Wesley's blush deepened for a second before he willed himself under control. Xander stepped aside, letting Wesley come through the doorway completely, calling out over his shoulder, "Hey! Can vampires fall _through_ your threshold? Does that count?"

"I would certainly hope not," Wesley replied, trying give the moment some levity, but failing miserably. It was impossible not to feel the tension in the room. Yes, there was an undercurrent of it in the air which he would have picked up on given enough time and also now that he no longer had his head 'firmly up his ass' as Faith had once put it. But, mostly it was the banging of pots and pans as Giles put them away and the way Xander had slammed the front door that had tipped him off that something was very wrong at the moment.

Shutting a cabinet door with more force than was necessary, the ex-Watcher turned to face Wesley. For a moment it looked as if whatever anger he was already feeling was going to be directed at the Wesley. Then, the moment passed, and Giles gave him a closer look.

"Wesley," Giles said slowly. "Are you…alright?"

Raising an eyebrow, Wesley wondered if perhaps his initial assessment of his appearance was wrong. Instead of merely looking like he was a bit worn down, he felt it was safe to assume he was well beyond that if Giles' look was anything to go by. If the suit he was wearing hadn't been clean, he would have thought that maybe he had a mad, homeless look to him. The weight in his eyes couldn't have been helping much. One morning before he left England, Wesley had caught his own gaze and nearly yelped in shock. There was a madness there that hadn't been before. It passed almost as quickly as it came, but it was unnerving none the less.

Suddenly, Giles was standing in front of him. Wesley blinked a few times, refocusing on the world around him.

"Wesley?" Giles asked his voice laced with concern.

With one final blink, Wesley looked Giles in the eyes.

"What? Sorry my mind was…yes. What?"

"I think he was going to ask you if you where alright, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say 'no'," Xander stated coming up behind the younger man.

"I haven't heard from you for almost a week. We were starting to worry if perhaps the Council had taken certain…measures to ensure your obedience," Giles told him, some of the anger returning. If it was about his absence or simply whatever was going on between him and Xander, Wesley hadn't a clue.

"Yes, right. Sorry. Things back home got rather…" he trailed off, looking past Giles' shoulder. "No matter, I'm back now."

Giles motioned to the living room and after a split second of hesitation, Wesley started forward with the other two men following. Taking a seat on the couch, it was hard to miss that Giles and Xander took seats as far apart as possible. Xander going as far as to sit on the edge of the end table near the far side of the wall, the furthest from the Giles' own chair, earning him a look of disapproval from the elder man. Xander pointedly ignored the look.

"Not that we aren't happy about you being back," Giles said, turning his attention back to Wesley. "But what happened? You were supposed to be gone for a week at the most. You've been there almost a month and I've had hardly any contact with you!"

"England was a bit more complicated than we anticipated."

"How much more?"

Spotting a pair of glasses on the coffee table, each with only a bit of wine in them, Wesley paused. He had only suspected that something had happened when he saw Joyce leaving the apartment and even then it was only a minor thought, nothing that he gave any real time to. The glasses, one with obvious lipstick on it, all but screamed that his little suspicion was correct. Slowly, the reason for Xander's and Giles' tension started to take form. If Giles had been in the middle of a date with Joyce when Xander came home, it was bound to lead to more than a simple awkward moment, especially if no one knew about the relationship. Or, worse yet, if it had only just started and Xander had walked in, the boy could have ruined a very tentative moment in such a delicate thing for the two would be lovers.

"Giles, is everything…alright here?" Wesley asked carefully. At the confused look on his face, Wesley gestured to the wine glasses, raising an eyebrow, adding, "I saw Joyce leaving when I was outside."

"Oh, for the love of-"

"See! He's just as freaked as I am!" Xander shouted, standing up.

Giles rose to his feet, glaring at Xander. "And that gave you the right to come in here acting like some idiot school boy!"

"News flash," Xander shot back, "I _am_ an idiot school boy!"

"You've more than proven that recently, haven't you?" Giles seethed, jabbing a finger angrily at the young man. "I told you, under no circumstances, where you to patrol with Buffy unless I said otherwise. Instead, I find out that you picked her up tonight, completely ignoring me."

"So you don't think that Buffy needs backup out there? Or Faith, for that matter?" Xander took a step forward, his body tense. "Are you upset that I went with Buffy to make sure she was safe or that I wasn't here so you couldn't sneak Buffy's _mom_ in here to begin with?"

"You insolent little..." Taking a calming breath, for all the good it did, Giles said, "You know bloody well that this has nothing to do with that, and everything to do with you ignoring my orders and lying to me."

"You're not my Watcher," Xander countered.

"You live under my damn roof and you'll do as I bloody well say!"

"Then maybe I won't live under your damn roof!"

With that final exclamation, Xander leapt clear across the room, grabbing his staff on the way. Opening the door, Xander stormed out followed a moment later by the telltale sound of a gust of wind kicking up, undoubtedly lifting him into the air. It happened almost too fast for Wesley to follow with his eyes, especially since he was busy getting out of the way of Xander's feet as he sailed over him. Giles didn't fare any better, barely completing a turn for the front door before Xander had gone off to wherever it was he went to.

Sitting up straight, Wesley peered over his shoulder at the open door. "That was…unexpected."

"Damn it," Giles muttered, some of his anger melting away into weariness.

"Or perhaps not as unexpected as I think."

"No, not at all unexpected," Giles replied tersely. Taking in a calming breath, Giles said, "I wish it was, though. It would be better than the alternative." Shaking his head, he muttered, "Since when did I sound like my damn father?"

"Giles, what happened here?" Wesley asked quietly, his voice rougher than he intended, surprising both men.

Shutting the door with a heavy sigh, Giles shook his head. "I wish I knew. So much has happened in the weeks you've been away. Between what Buffy learned from her brief stint of telepathy and Xander's own admissions, I'm almost afraid to find out what you've learned."

Wesley schooled his features, hoping that he managed not to look as confused as he felt. He had actually been referring to the fight between him and Xander, as well as what was obviously a date with Joyce, but he didn't bother correcting him. Clearly, whatever Giles was talking about was far more important. Clearing his throat, he said, "It might help me if I knew exactly what was going on."

Taking a seat heavily, Giles picked up his wine glass, swallowing the remaining bit of it before talking, telling him everything.

Wesley sat and took everything in. He listened as Giles explained Buffy's bout of telepathy, the things she had gleamed from both Faith and Xander's mind, all of which was disturbing in its own right. It only got worse, though, as Giles recounted the disaster that had taken place the night of Prom. Vampire Willow's own mystical ability, the Hellhounds, and the fact that she seemed to be raising a force to move against Xander for some, as yet, unknown endgame. Not to mention what Angel had told Buffy about a completely separate person, who was yet unknown, who had single handedly taken control of most of the demons in the town. It was amazing that Giles was holding on fairly well.

The only thing that didn't surprise Wesley, however, was Xander holding back from everyone exactly what he could do. Even if he hadn't learned what he had from his father, it still wouldn't have come as that big of a shock. The very idea that someone with Xander's knowledge and power would willingly and completely tip his hand was laughable. Anyone with enough power and common sense knew not to show exactly what you could unless you needed to. The only thing that separated Xander from most people with power was that he kept his abilities hidden out of fear of rejection from everyone's reaction.

When Giles was finished recounting the past month's adventures, a long silence followed, each of the men lost in their own thoughts. Wesley needed something else to focus on, something hopefully less complicated. He motioned to the glasses, asking, "And, uh, tonight?"

"Oh, yes," Giles said, a slight blush rising to his cheeks. "Xander came home tonight at a very…inopportune time."

"I thought you didn't want him out patrolling to begin with? Why was he out?"

"He wasn't supposed to be patrolling with Buffy. He said he was meeting Faith at the Bronze. The two have become quite close, actually, and I didn't think anything of it. Not until Joyce asked him how it had gone when he came in. He picked Buffy up, it seems, before Joyce came here. The two said they were going out on patrol."

"And Joyce-"

"Is none of your business," Giles told him, firmly putting his foot down on that vein of conversation. "Suffice to say when you came in things were rather…tense." He paused, leaning back and looking weary. "I'm worried about him, Wesley. I'm afraid of what all of this is doing to him, if it really is him."

Wesley frowned slightly.

This, he thought, was going to take some time to explain.

* * *

With his knees pulled up to his chest, arms wrapped firmly around his legs, Xander told himself that he did _not_ look like a sulking child. It might seem that way to the casual observer, but to the trained eye, he was simply contemplative, brooding even, but definitely not sulking. Besides, the roof of the apartment complex gave him a pretty decent view, especially since most buildings in Sunnydale didn't go above five or six stories, so there was nothing that really got in the way of the horizon.

Since storming out of the apartment in anger, he'd been up on the roof above the apartment. Sometimes thinking, sometimes not. At times, he'd daydream about riding off into that dark sky on his own or maybe with his own ragtag team of friends and teammates like Aang had. Mostly, though, he just watched the night pass and listened to the sounds of Sunnydale After Dark. Despite what he would have expected, there were no screams of terror piercing the night every five minutes or the roaring challenge of some demon looking for a fight. He had never stopped and paid that close attention to it, but he had thought that the Hellmouth would have had, well, more of a hellish quality to it. Instead, it seemed like just another sleepy little town, just like it was supposed to be.

He didn't know how long he had been up there, an hour, maybe two, before he heard the door open again. Leaning forward a bit, he peered over the edge of the roof and saw Wesley walking slowly away from the apartment. Xander was going to go back to not sulking and let him go, but gravity disagreed with that choice.

The fall was far from graceful. There was no way he was going to be able to stop himself completely. With a quick bit of Airbending, Xander was at least able to make sure that when he landed face first in the dirt he wasn't hurt too bad.

That was different than not hurt at all, however.

"Ow."

"Xander?" Wesley exclaimed, whirling around to where the young Avatar had crashed to the ground. "Are you alright?" he asked, rushing over to help him up.

Holding his nose, wincing, he replied, "Yeah, just dandy. I never liked the shape of my nose anyway." Taking a dainty sniff only to see stars, Xander opened his mouth in a nearly silent scream. "Son of a bitch!"

"Hold still," Wesley told him, grabbing the side of his head to keep him from moving around. After a moment of looking at his face from different angles, he said, "It doesn't look broken."

"Gee, that makes it hurt so much less," Xander replied with a roll of his eyes.

"Try not to touch it. Also, some ice should help it go down. I'd say to go inside and get some, but I think giving Giles a few more minutes to calm down and get his thoughts together would be best. Not to mention that I doubt you'd actually need me to get you ice at this point in your training."

"You heard about that, huh?"

"It's one of many things that Rupert informed me about." Wesley paused, closing his eyes for a moment and seemed far more tired than Xander had ever seen before. "It's hard to believe that so much could happen in such a short amount of time."

Snorting in agreement, Xander thought back to how little time Aang had had to master all of the elements _and_ put an end to a century long war. In the amount of time that Xander had these powers, Aang had already mastered Air and Water and would have started on Earth. Sure, the kid had been on a timetable from hell, but it wasn't as if Xander didn't have a reason to hurry it up.

"Since we have some time on our hands, perhaps it would be best if we talk. If you stayed here this long, I sincerely doubt that you're going to be running off."

Xander didn't bother arguing the point that he wouldn't run away, no matter how mad he was. They both knew it would have been a lie. "So what do you want to talk about?" Xander asked, pretending to think about. Snapping his fingers, he said, "Oh, I know! How about what you found out in England?" Now that Wesley was standing in front of him, the reason for the other man's trip came rushing back. "Come on, Wesley. Did the Council have any more info on the Avatar's world? On the Avatars themselves, maybe?"

Wesley paused for a split second before answering. "The Council? No, not as such. It's safe to assume that the Council has no plans for the Avatar and knows next to nothing about that world or its people."

"But what about the book? All of the information you got, it came from the Council, didn't it?"

"Unfortunately, it's a bit more complicated than that. Had the Council obtained the information, things would be more predictable."

Wesley nodded to bench near the apartment and the two went to sit down.

"Alright, I'll bite," Xander said. "If it wasn't the Council who had them, who was it?"

Again, Wesley paused before answering. It was starting to get a bit annoying.

"Xander, before I say anything, you have to understand that I had no idea about this, about any of this, before now. If I had, I wouldn't have kept it a secret, not anymore. Things are too important here for Council politics or anything such as that or to interfere with this."

"Oooookkkaaaayyyy," Xander said slowly. "Wes, it might help if I knew what you were talking about."

"My father, Xander." Wesley shook his head lightly. "My father was the one who had the book. He knows everything. He knows about the world of the Avatar, about bending, about the Spirit World. And, more importantly, he knows that the Avatar is in this world."

"He knows about me?" Xander exclaimed jumping off the bench. "How does he know about me? What did you say?"

Grabbing his wrist, Wesley pulled him back down. "Calm down!" he hissed. "He doesn't know that _you're_ the Avatar. If he did, then nothing I could have done would have kept him or his group from coming here, looking for you and I most certainly did nothing to give away who you are! They merely know that something happened last year and that something big crossed over. They haven't even confirmed that it was the Avatar, but they suspect. After all, there's only a few things that could have come through and leave that big of a mystical signature."

"Well excuse me for freaking out!" Xander whispered harshly, darting his eyes back and forth looking for imaginary Council spies. "It's bad enough to have one dark and shadowy group looking for me, now I have two!"

"They aren't looking for you. At least I don't think they are. If they are, then they wouldn't be doing it actively. They believe that the spirit of the Avatar entered into a new born, just like it would in that world."

"Oh, gee. What a relief," Xander replied sarcastically. "How the hell do they know all this anyway? Is there some sort of inter-dimensional newsletter that went out? _New and freaky power comes to Earth! Come one, come all!_"

Wesley sat back, folding his hands in his lap. Normally, it would have made someone look like they were at ease, but right now, on him, it made him look anything but. His shoulders were too tense and he had the appearance of someone who was doing their best not to start initiating hundreds of nervous ticks or habits.

"I wouldn't have believed it had I not seen the proof for myself. The story is…too fantastic to be real."

"What story?"

Reaching into his inside jacket pocket, Wesley removed a rolled up piece of printer paper, handing it to Xander. Giving him an odd look, Xander unrolled the paper, hoping that it would shed some light on what Wesley was talking about. Instead of anything typed or hand written, it was a photocopy of a picture. Even through the copy, it was easy to see that the photo had been old and faded when it had been scanned. Going only on what he had seen in various research nights, Xander guessed that the picture had been taken sometime in the early nineteen hundreds or so, but he wouldn't put any real money on it. There were three people in the photo, two men and a woman. All of them where dressed in what was probably the height of fashion for that time. If they were supposed to mean something to him, Xander was clueless as to what. Though the woman did tug at a memory somewhere in the back of his mind, but he didn't know why.

"Do you recognize any of them?" Wesley asked a little hopefully.

"Should I?"

"Honestly? I have no idea. I had hoped so. Lord that would have made this easier!"

Taking another look, a bit more carefully this time, Xander still didn't find any reason why he should know anyone in the picture. Maybe it was because the picture was so old and the photocopy made it more blurry, but he was having a hard enough time making out each person's features.

"Sorry," Xander said shaking his head.

Moving closer, Wesley pointed to the man on the woman's left. "That is Sir Anthony Mitchell, knighted by Queen Victoria in 1884, nearly three years before this was taken, secretly, of course. That was back when the Council and the Crown had a better relationship. He was head of the Watcher's Council at the time.

"The man on the right is Oliver Pryce, my great-great-great grandfather. He was already a member on the board of the Council and founded what we call the Department of Anomalies."

"Great name," Xander muttered.

"The Council was never very imaginative, especially back then," Wesley agreed. "Oliver was a skilled mage and linguist. He had traveled all over Europe, Africa and a good portion of the Far East. By the time he had settled back in with the Council as a field operative, he spoke seven languages fluently, read an additional two dead ones, and one demonic. It made him the perfect man for dealing with her." Wesley pointed to the woman seated between the two men.

There wasn't anything amazing about the woman. She had long black hair that had been pulled up into a bun, loose strands falling from the knot framing her face. She was a petit woman, and though she sat with the rigidness of the upper class, the smile she was giving was genuine, if small. There was something off about her, but Xander wasn't able to put his finger on it. It made him feel like he was missing something right in front of him.

"Do you notice what's different about her?" Wesley asked.

"She's…sitting very straight?"

Wesley sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "A bit more obvious than that."

"She's…younger than the two other guys?"

Wesley gave him a look that was one part frustration and another part wondering how Xander could be so thick.

"She's Asian, Xander. The woman is Asian," Wesley said slowly.

Looking again at the picture, Xander's eyes brightened. "Oh yeah! I thought you meant _besides_ her being Asian," he said unbelievably. "Fine, OK, so I didn't notice. How was I supposed to see that what with all the marks on the picture?"

"An Asian woman in England, while not unheard of, was something that was a rarity. And in the Watcher's Council, even more so," Wesley said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You positive you don't know her? You're absolutely sure?"

"No!" Xander stood up with the copy still in hand, facing Wesley. "Geez, what the hell? Who the hell is this woman? Why the hell do you think I would know her?"

Taking a few moments, Wesley closed his eyes. "Damn," he muttered. "Damn, damn, damn, _damn_."

Xander took a few steps back as Wesley got to his feet. He wasn't afraid of the other man, but he was a little weirded out by how he was acting. Nothing that the young Watcher said was making sense. At least not the kind of sense Xander was used to, which was saying something, considering he could understand Willow babble like a native. Wesley's talking had more of the feel as if it all really did make sense. It was just that Wesley was the only person who understood what it meant. Now all Xander needed was someone to translate it all to him.

"The woman in the photo is my Grandfather's wife. They met a year before the photograph was taken."

"So both your how-ever-many-great Grandparents were Watchers? Wow, you guys really are in it for life."

"Actually," Wesley said taking a breath, "only Grandfather Oliver was part of the Council. My Grandmother was part of 'Council Business', as it were."

"He married one of the potentials?"

"Not as such," the Watcher replied slowly. "Oliver was called in because of his unique knowledge of Asian languages, specifically Archaic Chinese. The woman in this picture _was_ what the Council called him in on. She appeared out of nowhere in the middle of what was then the Council headquarters. She didn't speak any English or any other language that any of the present Watchers knew. She didn't seem dangerous. In fact, she was quite demure, as I've come to learn. Still, she was an unknown who managed to get past numerous wards and guards to get to the center of the Council's stronghold. Never mind that she seemed just as confused as everyone else, she was still seen as a possible threat 'til proven otherwise and subsequently detained.

"It took some time, but finally Oliver was able to communicate with her. Archaic Chinese, as you know, isn't a perfect translation, but it was something to work from. It wasn't long before she was able to give them a better idea of who she was and, more importantly, where she came from. An amazing, fantastic story about a land where people could shoot flames from their fist, change the bend of a river, raise up mountains, and sweep the land clear with winds. Although, that last one was only a story to her as well, she said."

Wesley paused, watching Xander carefully which was fine with Xander since his brain needed a moment to catch up to what Wesley had just said.

Wesley's Grandmother, his great-great-great _freaking_ Grandmother, had been someone from the Avatar's world! That was…well, not impossible, but damn near close to it. He didn't think Wesley was lying about it. What did the man have to gain from it, for starters? Also, there seemed to be a genuine concern about him. Almost as if Wesley was upset by it for some reason. But what did it mean? It couldn't be purely coincidence. It meant something, but what?

"I wish I could help more," Xander said quietly. "This is important. _Really_ important."

Sighing deeply, Wesley shook his head. "It's fine. It's…fine, Xander." He put on a smile, but it came across as more of a grimace. "It was something of a stretch. After all, she could be anyone from that world. There's no telling what part she was from or even when! The timelines between the two worlds are…a mess. They don't make any sense. Your own conversations with Aang jump in time by your own admission."

"Was there any clues? Did she mention the war? A particular Avatar maybe?" Xander asked.

"There were mentions of the war, but it's still a little bit of a mess." Reaching into his briefcase again, Wesley removed a book bound in soft blue leather. "This was Wyndam's journal, she started it shortly after arriving here. Mitchell thought it might help them gain insight into where she came from, who she was. The only problem is that it's written in the same language as the notes. The language of the Avatar's world."

"Wyndam?" Xander asked confused.

"The name of the Watcher that found her. It's what she was called since it took time to communicate properly."

"They called her Wyndam?" he asked again, this time with a note of disbelief.

"Can you stay on topic, please?" Wesley pleaded. "I've spent the entire time in England trying to learn everything I could about what my father knew of the Avatar's world. It isn't as if they have anything written in English or are willing to discuss anything outright. I've had to dig through countless scrolls, books, and tomes to find out what little I could. This journal was the only thing I could sneak out and it's been useless to me so far. Even with the basics of the language, I can only go so fast.

The Watchers that discovered her kept her a secret from the rest of the Council, passing down the information to their children when they, too, entered the Council. Most of the time, it was simply told to them and the reason for secrecy impressed upon them at an early age. It seems that my family was the only one who forced you to discover things on your own." It was hard to keep the resentment out of his voice. Exhaling, he said, "I don't know why, but I can't imagine them keeping it a reason for altruistic reasons. What I do know is that all of the Watchers involved have one sole purpose. To obtain any information about the Avatar's world that the Council, or any other group or individual may find, secure it and hide it away from the Council at large."

Xander held up both hands, halting Wesley from talking more. "Slow down for a second. I'm getting lost. You think there's some dark reason why the Council is being all hush-hush about this? Well, this little group of people in the Council, anyway."

Holding up the book for emphasis, Wesley said, "The information held in this book alone would be enough to set almost any Watcher off on a quest to gain access to that world, or to somehow harness the power of its people. Or, God forbid, the Avatar himself. That's not to mention the various other nefarious types that are out there. Any number of them would kill to get this kind of information. And worse."

"So, what? They're keeping it to themselves because they don't want anyone going all crazy in search of power. Isn't that pretty on par with what they do?"

"I wish it were that simple. Like I said, the Council, as a whole, doesn't simply do things for the betterment of mankind. I don't believe that, anymore," Wesley said quietly.

It was weird seeing Wesley so moody and depressed in regards to the Council. He had only just begun thinking of them as less than perfect before he left. Now, after almost a month, he seemed as if his whole foundation of belief had been shaken. In a way, it had been. He had been raised to be a Watcher, like Giles. But unlike Giles he didn't have those rebellious years that gave Giles that life experience that was desperately needed in order to not become fooled by the Council's party lines. Wesley had taken everything as truth. That didn't make him an idiot, just naive. Xander could relate to that. Hell, he still felt like he was following along blindly half the time. He probably would have stayed in denial about vampires and the like until he died of old age, or more likely something more heinous, had Buffy not come to town.

Xander would have liked to walk away from the sheer awkwardness of the situation, Since he wanted the information that Wesley had, and possibly might need it, depending, he didn't have much choice in the matter. He needed to stick around for the time being with the Watcher. If only to make him stop looking so defeated, if nothing else.

"Alright," Xander said. "If the Council in general isn't aware of all of this, and those that are, want it kept secret for not so nice reasons, than what do they want?"

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be standing here," Wesley replied irritably. Taking a breath, he calmed down visibly looking more tired than before. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you. This is all rather…"

"Sudden?" Xander offered. "Yep, that's something none of us can relate to. Sudden life altering changes? Nope, not this group."

"This whole situation is so….damn frustrating! If it weren't for the template we started on before I left, I wouldn't have been able to make out the small amount that I have and even that's unreliable."

Xander had almost forgotten all about the template. It had been Wesley's idea, right after they found out about Xander's language upgrade. It was meant to help Giles, Wesley, and anyone else reading through material written in the Avatar's language to be able to translate. The problem was that there were thousands of characters, variations on the language, and other difference that made making this particular Rosetta Stone a damn hard time. Still, they had gotten a bit of it done. Just enough so that it probably made it even more frustrating for Wesley that he couldn't truly translate anything just yet.

Wesley gripped the small journal in his hand hard enough that the leather creaked. "The only thing that I was able to determine was that she left her world forcefully and that she kept having to hide her features. How they managed to hide amber colored eyes in that day is beyond me, unless they used a glamour every day," he thought out loud. "That isn't remotely helpful, though!"

"Wait, did you say amber eyes?" Xander asked quickly, his brain latching onto some idea fast, but it was taking its sweet time to work out the details.

Wesley shrugged his shoulders. "That's what her journal says. Apart from her eyes being a deep amber color, there was nothing at all different about her physically, but that she needed to be taught how to act in her new time and place, how frightening it was to her. Obviously, she was able to give birth to children from Oliver without any complications, something that I would have thought impossible, given the fact that she could be vastly different genetically."

Xander once again stared at the picture, taking more time to study the faded features on the woman. The high cheek bones. The shape of her nose. The way her eyes shined with emotion. There was something about her smile that tugged at a hidden memory somewhere in the mess of thoughts that made up his knowledge of Aang's life. It was all there staring him in the face and he still couldn't put it together. It was right there, just out of his minds reach.

"Wesley," Xander asked quietly. "What was her name?"

"I told you, Wyndam. For all of her time here, it's what they called her. It's why Oliver took the name, after all." Wesley stilled, looked closely at Xander, and sucked in a breath. "You know who she is, don't you?"

"I don't know." Xander turned away, trying to think.

"But you suspect."

"I don't know! I never met any of these people before. I just have…images, odd not-memories of people that Aang knew, things that Aang knew. It's not like I have everything he knows stored in my head like in a notebook!"

Grabbing his arm, Wesley forced him to turn back and look at him. "Xander, this is important. Anything you can tell me, anything at all, might be of help." He met Xander's eyes. "Whatever these people are doing with this information, I promise you it isn't good, not entirely. Especially not with my father involved and…" Wesley paused, his gaze never wavering, "this is my family, Xander. I'm asking you, help me understand this."

When put like that, it was hard to say no. Wesley was standing in front of him, asking for help with something that had thrown him far off course. Wesley didn't strike Xander as the type who asked for help often, if ever. It had cost him something to do it. More than that, it was the man's family. How could he turn him away?

"I need you to understand something," Xander said, "When I told you that I didn't have a clear picture in my head about all of Aang's life, I meant it. I know the basic outline. Some parts are better than others, but it's not like I know everything. Anything I tell you right now, it's all…guess work you could say."

"Guess work is all I've had to go on for past month."

"And, I need two things from you," Xander said seriously. "I want to be brought in on this."

"Xander, I-"

Shaking his head, Xander cut him off. "No, I mean it. I get that this is family or that it's Council business or whatever the hell it is, but I need to know. Anything and everything you find on the Avatar's world, on the Council's connection to it, I want to know it all."

"I was going to say that I completely understand and would have done that anyway, but agreed." Though his face hadn't changed, his words held a slight lilt to them.

"Oh, uh, well, good then," Xander replied sheepishly.

"And the second?" Wesley asked, the slight humor still present in his voice.

"The what? Oh, yeah." He pointed to Wesley's hand, saying, "I'm going to need my arm back. You're kind of cutting off my circulation."

"Sorry," Wesley said dispassionately, releasing his hold.

Rubbing his arm, Xander winced slightly. Wesley may have looked weak, but the suit he wore and his general appearance hid his strength. No one with a vice like grip that Wesley had just demonstrated could be as weak as they had thought him to be. It made Xander wonder what else the Watcher was hiding beneath the surface, what else they might find out.

"Alright, so do we know…anything?"

Wesley handed the journal to Xander. "I was hoping you'd be able to make more headway than I was. While my father may have let me in on the…family secret, as it were, I don't have access to everything that they have." His face becoming a little more distant when mentioning his father.

Xander flipped open the journal. It was better than trying to delve into Wesley's family drama.

The thing that struck him first was that the writing was definitely female. He'd never be able to tell that if he was looking at English words, unless, of course, there were hearts dotting the I's, but with the calligraphy of the languages in the Avatar's world, it was fairly simple. The characters flowed differently between the genders of the writer, in general. Maybe other languages were like that, too. Maybe there were people that could pick out the curve of an S and be able to tell where that person came from or how they grew up. Xander didn't know about those languages, but he did know that it was fairly simple to do with _this_ language.

For instance, the calligraphy was something that could almost be described as smooth, but it was too stilted in places. Some characters had ink blotches on them, obscuring their meaning from anyone who didn't know the language well enough. She was unsure when she had begun writing.

"When she wrote this, she hadn't had much practice with a pen," Xander said.

"What do you mean?" Wesley asked, coming to look over his shoulder at the pages.

"See these markings at the tips of all the characters? I recognize that from my own attempts at writing. My brain kept trying to get the ballpoint pen to work like a brush, only mine looked a lot worse since my hands never actually wrote anything like this before. Whoever this woman was, she had training, though. Not just the usual schooling or home lessons in reading and writing, but actual training. A few of these characters look like those used by those in well to do families, actually. It's possible that she could have been a noble-woman of some sort. But, considering her eyes, she would have to be from the Fire Nation. Almost all of the Fire Nation nobles and royalty have amber colored eyes. Not all, but most. None of the other nations would though, so definitely Fire Nation. Maybe a lenders wife, or a politician."

"The Fire Nation? Those are the ones that started the war, right?"

"One and the same," Xander replied with only a touch of bitterness in his voice.

"So why would a Fire Nation noble suddenly find herself in another dimension?"

"That's one of the million dollar questions," Xander replied with a breath.

Xander's eyes grew wide as he started reading. "Wesley…you're positive that no one ever knew her name? Not anyone?"

"If they did I'm fairly certain that they wouldn't have kept calling her Wyndam. Why? What is it?"

Xander tried to speak, but nothing came out. No matter what he tried to say, his brain and mouth disconnected somewhere along the line, probably out of the sheer impossibility of what he was reading, he guessed.

Finally, he gave up on trying to form with his own words and translated the first paragraph on the first page.

"_It is a strange world that I've found myself in. Terrifying in ways that no one could possibly understand., But if this is the world that the Spirits deemed my punishment, then I will accept with all of the courage of a woman of my station. I would suffer fates a thousand times worse so long as I know that he will be safe. I only wish that I could have explained it to him before I fled. There is so much that he has left to learn, to understand. I only wish I could have been there to help. _

" _My poor child, he must be so alone now. My precious Zuko."_


	18. Chapter 18

**_A/N: Thanks to everyone who has kept up with this story and those that have left reviews. Sorry if I haven't answered all of them. Like with updating this thing, I keep meaning to, but then time keeps slipping away. Also, thanks to Greywizard for the beta help, as always. This chapter is mostly talky-talky, but the next two will be a LOT of fighty-fighty with glavin and everything. I won't bore you with a giant note about anything and just let you guys get to the story. Really, thanks for the comments and constructive criticism, they do make me work faster (Well, as fast as possible, anyway). Enjoy!_**

Chapter 18

The mug was heavy in his hands. The easiest way to fix that would be to put it down, let his hand rest a bit. The other, and more enjoyable way, to rid himself of the bothersome weight of the glass was to lessen the load it held, which was simple enough to do. Lift and drink, simple as that. It helped that the past three hours have been spent doing exactly that. After three glasses of whiskey and four beers, Lindsey was pretty sure that the mugs were starting to get heavier on purpose. Like everything else in his life, they were out to make things harder for him. The only solace he had at the moment was the alcohol and the mug was trying to take that from him, too. Well, he couldn't let that happen. Everything else in his life may be slipping out of his control. but he'd be damned if he'd lose this small comfort as well. Tipping the mug back, Lindsey drained the last of his drink, slamming the glass onto the bar top, grinning like a man who'd won something.

Lindsey thought about that and laughed darkly to himself. Won something? Him? That was a funny.

He'd fought tooth and nail for everything in his life. Forced himself to be better than everyone around him, work harder than everyone else, and look where it had gotten him, sitting in a dingy little truck stop bar, dust covering his boots and jeans, and his life showing no more prospects than his daddy's had back home.

Sure, he had tasted the sweet life and everything that it held, and paid like hell for it, but it had all been taken away from him. For a time, he had deluded himself into thinking it had all been Harris's fault, that he was the one to blame. In the end, though, it was himself. He had paved this particular road to damnation all on his own, and now the only way out was to continue down that path by ensuring horrible things happened to other people.

He wasn't sure if the conscience he had buried long ago was slowly digging itself out of its grave or what, but lately Lindsey had been racked with guilt. Little things, big things, all of it seemed to be filling his head on a fairly steady bases. Of course, all he had done at Wolfram and Hart had been at the forefront of his mind. The things he had done, the things he had helped people get away with. Christ, the _things_ he had worked for! Little by little, he had sold his soul, 'til at some point he simply gave it away. But what bothered him most, what kept him up at night drinking till his vision blurred and he passed out, were the little things.

The small lies he had told his mother whenever they had spoken so many years ago. The things that he could have done to help someone, some small insignificant action on his part that would have meant something to someone else, and he had turned away every time. All the things that meant he had given more and more of himself away, bit by bit, it all hit him.

And now, here he was with a choice. He could continue with how he had lived his life and get back everything that had been taken from him. All it would cost him was living with his choice to send a young man to his death and destruction, possibly tearing his very soul asunder. It shouldn't be that hard of a thing to do. After all, he'd done it before.

The alternative was to do nothing and pay for everything he had done, with interest. There was no way he could back out of this operation without having the firm come for him. The only thing keeping them at bay was the fact that he was working with them and had a deeper understanding of what they were dealing with than anyone else on their team. Well, anyone that he had met, anyway.

If he served up Harris to the firm, he'd get his job back, and probably make junior partner, too. He'd be made head of a department, probably Special Projects. Any and all of his debts or former contracts with the firm would be wiped free and he'd be able to get a new contract with them, one that benefited him more than his current one. Of course, not as much as it benefited the firm, but that was always the case.

If he didn't, he'd be a dead man from that moment on. The only thing he'd be waiting for, was for them to make it official. He'd never be able to hide from them long term, not a chance in…well, hell, really.

What kind of a choice was that, anyway?

"Bartender," a smooth, rather bored voice called out next to Lindsey. "Another drink, if you would. Coffee, this time. Thank you."

Looking over, Lindsey tried to sneer, but he was too drunk to make his face work right, so he settled for looking generally disgruntled. "Why shouldn't I be surprised that you just happened to appear here? Out of nowhere, just, poof."

"Actually, I walked through the door and was sitting here for several minutes. You've been staring into that mug for some time, completely unaware of your surroundings," Gavin said with a bored shrug.

"Yeah, well, it's my time, isn't it? I can sit here all night if I damn well please. We still have two days before the drop off." Looking down at the black coffee the bartender put down in front of him, Lindsey wanted to argue, but didn't. He was too drunk to properly stand on his own, much less get into a fight with anyone and it would just lead to him getting cut off, anyway. Besides, with Gavin around, it wouldn't have done any good. The man wouldn't have budged and even stone cold sober, Lindsey wouldn't have tangled with him.

"You're time is the firm's time," Gavin replied. "We're both being paid to do a job. Mine is to make sure everyone does theirs, and I'm not certain that you'll live up to your end of things."

"Oh? And why's that?"

"Because you've been sitting in this bar every night since you were told that we would be going into the second phase. Now, it's two days 'til things are set to go, and here you are, once again."

"What can I say? I have trouble sleeping with Lilah in the house. It's easier when I'm too drunk to see her."

Gavin looked at Lindsey, his expression as impassive as ever. "Where I come from, when an enemy is sleeping in your homestead, you sleep with your eyes open, not inebriated."

"Yeah, well, that's what the gun is for," Lindsey said, frowning as he did. Gavin did have a point, he just wasn't sure that he could figure out what it was at the moment.

"True," Gavin said, without making it a concession. "That still doesn't change the fact that I need you to be in this, one hundred percent."

"You don't think I'll do my part?" Lindsey said angrily. "I've been working this thing from the beginning. Since the beginning!" He slammed his fist onto the bar top, causing the few patrons and the staff to look their way. Calming down a bit, Lindsey glared at Gavin. "You really think your time is best spent with me? I'd be more worried about that crazed Slayer that you all brought on."

"Trust me, Faith is hardly a concern. Despite what you or anyone else may think, she is doing exactly what is needed of her. In the end, Faith will play her part, make no mistake about that."

Standing, Gavin looked about the bar, unperturbed by the looks they were still getting. "Be back in two hours, Lindsey, sober and ready to work. There is still much to be done."

"Gavin," Lindsey called out, a bit more put together than before. "What exactly are you getting out of this whole deal, anyway?"

Gavin paused at the door, inhumanly still. For a moment, Lindsey half expected him to say something. Instead, he pushed open the door and walked out into the parking lot.

Lindsey watched him leave, the anger he felt growing steadily. Without an outlet for the anger, it soon turned to fear and self pity again. Despite what he had thought earlier, he knew that he couldn't blame anyone else for his predicament. For better or worse, he'd have to make his choice and follow it through.

Picking up the cup of coffee he took a sip, pulling a face. Maybe it was just him, but it tasted particularly bitter.

* * *

Awareness came slowly, as it always did after deep meditation. His breathing speed up, along with his heart rate, as his senses threatened to become overloaded. In the Spirit World, his "senses" were based off of his mind, his soul. They weren't exactly _real_, in the true sense on the word. Whenever he came back to the physical plane from his foray into the Spirit World, the real world was more than a bit intense.

Smells and sounds seemed more real than they should. With his eyes open, the light was brighter, sharper than he knew it really was. Still, it hurt his eyes for a moment as it came through the library windows, forcing him to squint and raise a hand against the offending beam. The sensations wouldn't last long, barely a second in real time, but it was slightly disorienting, nonetheless. Even lifting his hand too fast was a bit of a push on his balance and he began to fall backwards.

Two hands slipped easily under his arms, lifting him to his feet.

"Easy there, Boytoy. If you end up breaking something, they'll never let me watch you again," Faith told him, supporting his weight.

Normally, Xander would have taken the opening and started a round of one liners and innuendo's with the girl. Instead, he frowned, gave her hand a squeeze, and moved away from her.

"Alright, so I take it your little pow-wow didn't go so well."

"No, not really," Xander said, starting to pace the width of the library. "It didn't go _bad_; just not good, either."

Hoping up on the checkout counter, Faith watched Xander walk about. "Alright. So what's the what? Did the kid not have anything useful to tell ya?"

Xander's frown deepened a bit. "Pretty much. Zuko never found out exactly what happened to his mother, so there wasn't a whole lot he could help tell me about that. Not to mention that any Spirit with enough juice to throw someone across the dimensions would have to be uber-powerful. Yue was only able to help Aang because the spell had thrown him here and the balance was already…well, it's all kind of complicated and I don't really understand all of it, so let's just call it Avatar mumbo jumbo."

"OK, so the kid couldn't help," she said with a shrug. "We're no worse off than we were before and it's not exactly like this stuff is time sensitive or anything."

"Yeah, I know."

Faith gave him a curious look, asking, "So if it ain't important, why the look of impending doom?"

Stopping his pacing, Xander looked her in the eyes, his face completely serious. His eyes weren't hard or filled with determination, but there wasn't a hint of humor in them like usual. It was a bit unnerving to see that kind of look on him.

Sitting up a bit straighter, Faith gave him her complete attention.

"It's been a month since I last talked to Aang, for me, anyway. For him, it's been about two. The time difference never seems to be the same between the worlds," Xander said with a shake of his head. "But, there have been even more rebellions in the Fire Nation. The, um…the place that had been on the bad side of the war. It's under a good ruler now. Zuko's been the Fire Lord since the end of the war and most of the people support him."

"But not everyone," Faith nodded in understanding.

"Yeah, and unfortunately, it's a lot of the upper crust families that are fighting against him. Not out in the open, but they're the ones who are supporting the rebels and they've got a LOT of money to do it with.

"Anyway, about a week ago, there was this huge fight that happened in the Fire Nation capitol. It was a mess," Xander said closing his eyes. "A lot of people were killed and even more hurt. The whole time, they were heading towards the palace. They went after Mai, Zuko's fiancée. She lives right near the palace."

"Shit, they went after the King's girlfriend? They had to know it would only piss him off more."

"Fire Lord," Xander corrected absently, not really expecting her to use the right term. "And that was the idea, at least part of it. But Mai's a tough lady. She had her attackers pinned to the wall before her guards even knew what had happened. Luckily, she left one alive or else they never would have known what was going on.

"The attack had been a smoke screen. I mean, they did want to kill Mai to put Zuko off his game, but it was still just a distraction from their big plan. A smaller group of rebels with stronger Fire Benders headed for the tower, the jail for the worse offenders of the Fire Nation. The place held Zuko's father, Ozai. The guards took out three of the rebels, but in the end, they were overpowered. The broke out Ozai and ran with him, freeing every other prisoner on the way out. They don't know if they actually meant to or not, but it only added to the confusion."

Faith raised both her eyebrows. "They broke out the big bad king dude from before? The place has gotta be a total mess. Hell, if I was kicked out of power and locked away, I'd be itching for some payback."

"They thought the same thing. Everyone was waiting for him to make his move. But, when he did, no one was ready for it.

"Ozai has a daughter, Azula. Long story short, she went all One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and was as every bit as evil as Ozai was, maybe more so. Considering that she wasn't a demon, that's saying something. When she finally snapped completely, she lost her mind and Zuko had her put away in, well, I guess in what we would call a mental hospital. Anyway, the big strike came with Ozai trying to break his daughter out of the place. Even with all of the extra security because of Azula, nothing could stop him and his group."

Faith nodded her head trying to follow all the different connections. "So the old Fire King, Zuko's dad, got broken out and then went to break his other kid out of the loony bin? How'd that go over?" she asked with a whistle.

"Not well," Xander told her with a shake of his head. "Ozai had his bending taken away from him during the final battle with Aang."

"Shit! They can do that?" Faith asked leaning forward, eyes wide.

Xander shrugged. "Aang can, but I can't. At least, I don't know how to."

"How come? It's not some Avatar shit or something?"

"Actually, Aang learned it from a Giant Lion-Turtle." When Faith stared at him incredulously, Xander merely shrugged again in response.

"But, yeah, Ozai is powerless in the bending department. That doesn't mean he isn't a threat. Besides, he knew that if he could get Azula out, he'd have a Firebending prodigy that was second to none. Well, when she was sane, anyway."

"So I guess since dad and daughter are back together, it'll be another full on war, won't it? Old regime versus the new," Faith said solemnly.

Xander smiled a little. People, including Faith, forget that just because a person wasn't educated, doesn't mean they aren't smart. Faith was usually pretty insightful given half a chance and all of the information.

His smile turned into a frown as he remembered what Aang told him, however.

"Actually, it didn't work out that way." There weren't many survivors of the attack, but those that made it said that something happened in Azula's cell when Ozai went in. Either she refused to go with him, which doesn't add up, or, more likely, she was still too far gone to be of any use to him. Either way, he had the band of Firebenders with him destroy the place. They burned it to the ground, left nothing standing but smoldering earth and rubble. Azula, however, was definitely not with them when they left."

"He killed his own kid? Just…just 'cause she couldn't do anything for him?"

"Ozai is not known for his warm and fuzzy approach to parenting," Xander said shaking his head. "Anyway, the Fire Nation is in something of a state of panic at the moment. Peace treaties are in danger of being broken when the ink is barely dried on some of them. Aang and everyone else is pretty much stretched thin, trying to keep everything from falling back into chaos.

"On top of that, I don't know how Aang is going to fair with all of this, or if he'll even be able to keep up with our training sessions."

"Does it matter? I mean, if there's some kind of screwy time thing, this might all be over and done with by the time you and him meet up again."

"Maybe. Or I could distract him when he's trying to contact someone else in the Spirit World or do something equally important." Xander shook his head. "No, we agreed that I'd wait to contact him 'til after he reaches out to me first."

"Damn. I still don't know which is worse. Fightin' a war against demons that no one knows about or fighting a war against people like where the whole world could be against you."

"Personally, I'd take the demons over fighting Ozai or Azula. Hell, some of the Spirits that are close to that world would give most of the things that we see a run for their money."

Hoping off the counter, Faith walked up to Xander, giving him a playful punch in the shoulder. "I wonder what you'd say if you couldn't hit a nest of vamps with a tornado."

"It wasn't a tornado!" Xander exclaimed, defensively. Grinning, he shoved her shoulder, saying, "It was just gale force wind."

"Hey, all I know is that it was never that easy to take down that many fangs before. I think they bounced off of every wall in that place at least three times before you let up. They were moaning and groaning all over the floor by the time me and B got to them."

With a goofy grin, Xander shrugged his shoulders in response, not having a witty comment to fire back with. It was funny how Faith did that to him more often than not. He prided himself on being able to have at least _something_ to say at any given point, even if it was something stupid or just amusing to himself. Around Faith, especially lately, with the amount of time they'd been spending together, he'd been getting tongue-tied at the dumbest moments. Like now, for instance.

Faith matched his grin with a smirk of her own. She didn't bother to try and fill the silence with any words, but it was hard to miss the tension that started to build between the two of them. Little moments like this had been happening more and more frequently. It was getting harder to pay attention to that little voice in his head that screamed at him to "Stop and think for a moment!". The last thing that either of them needed at the moment was something to further complicate their lives. But right now, the largest part of his brain, as well as something a lot lower, was yelling at him to kiss her.

While he was busy trying to calm those voices in his head, he didn't even realize that he had started to slowly move closer to the girl in front of him. Suddenly, as she stood there, still smiling that knowing smirk of hers, she seemed very young and feminine. Gone was the Slayer, the tough as nails fighter who kept people at a distance and cursed like a sailor when the mood struck her. In her place was just a young woman who knew what was about to happen and wanted it just as much as he did.

Another inch and he could see her eyes sparkle with mirth. No doubt she was finding it all too amusing that he could be so shy and slow about simply kissing her when they had already slept together. Still, she didn't hurry his steps, enjoying prolonging his suffering as he made his way closer, slow as ever with every movement.

Despite being so close, it felt like an eternity till he was actually in range to tilt down and kiss her. She was taller than Buffy, but that wasn't saying much. She was still a good six inches shorter than he was, something that was lost on him when he watched her in the frenzy of battle.

Nervously, Xander licked his lips and swore that he heard Faith giggle ever so softly.

He reached behind her, his hand poised just above her lower back, ready to take her and pull her closer to him. The voice that had been telling him to "stop" had stopped talking, along with every other thought in his brain, almost as if they were holding their breaths, waiting to see what would happen next. Finally, he laid his hand on her and started to draw her in, leaning down-

"They're about to start to the ceremony."

Jumping twelve feet back, landing on his ass, Xander leveled a glare at the library doors, and then at Wesley.

"Xander, are you alright? I thought that you would have been done with your meditation by now," Wesley said coming over and helping Xander to his feet, completely ignorant to what he had interrupted. "The ceremony is about to begin, I thought that you didn't want to miss it?"

"No, it's fine," Xander grumbled, once again letting someone else help him stand up, though this time he was much less happy about it.

Sparing Faith a pleading glance, Xander shouldn't have been surprised to find her covering a laugh behind her hand offering him little sympathy. Sighing, he rolled his eyes and gave up. Making a fool of himself was something that he was so used to at this point in his life that it almost didn't hurt anymore. The urge to strangle Wesley, however, didn't diminish lesson all that much however.

"Mrs. Summers is saving us seats," Wesley told them. "I don't want to impose on her any longer than necessary."

"Come on, Boytoy," Faith said, still laughing. Giving his butt a slightly harder than needed slap, she added, "You can tell Wesley all about how his big bad homicidal step-great-granddad just broke out of prison."

"_What?_" Wesley asked, his voice raising at least two octaves higher than normal.

The shocked look on the Watcher's face almost made up for what had happened.

Almost.

The sputtering half-questions thrown at him as Xander walked away didn't hurt either.

* * *

The ceremony had been like any other high school graduation. Long and boring. Oddly enough, it was exactly what they had all hoped it to be. In all of the years of being a student at Sunnydale High, all of the insanity that they had went through, put up with, and survived, a nice, normal graduation ceremony was just what was needed. It was exactly what Buffy needed. Even with Snyder's overly harsh orders during the whole thing, it had gone off without a snag or a snarl. The worst part had been the speech from the Alan Fitch, the interim Mayor. But, it was hard to blame the guy. He looked nervous as all hell. She'd never seen a man sweat or shift his eyes around so much.

But it was over now. It was all…over.

The whole of her future was spread out before her and she couldn't think of a damn thing to do with it. Sure, she had enrolled at UC Sunnydale and would take classes like any other normal student. And, yes, Willow and Oz had both enrolled there as well, saying how it was more important to both of them to be here, on the Hellmouth, than it was to study somewhere more prestigious. Buffy had tried to dissuade them, but it was hard to argue with, "It won't matter where we study, if the world ends and we could have helped stop it."

Still, college wasn't going to change anything, not really. She would still be the Slayer. She would still have to put everything else in her life on hold to deal with whatever world ending, soul eating monster reared its ugly head, usually at the worst possible moment, too. Could she have a career? A family, even? Her relationship with Angel was screwed up, she knew that. She'd never have a normal life with him, never have two point five kids and a picket fence. But, in her mind she wasn't going to have that any way, so what did it matter?

She watched her mother standing in a corner with Giles and Wesley, laughing at something her former Watcher had just said. Seeing her mother get close to Giles was something that made Buffy happy, as well as freaked out. Mostly, if she didn't think about it, she would survive with her sanity intact. Still, there was something slightly depressing about it as well. There she was, all alone, surrounded by people who managed to put whatever they were in the supernatural department aside and live relatively normal lives.

Giles was a walking encyclopedia of occult knowledge and fighting techniques, yet that didn't stop him from getting together with her mom. (Ew, once again). Willow was a budding witch and Oz was a werewolf and they got together with all of that standing in their way.

Glancing at Wesley, she almost thought her theory had a flaw till she remembered that he _was_ Wesley, after all. His being single had nothing to do with the supernatural and everything to do with him _being_ Wesley. The man may have stopped being as big as a pompous idiot as when he first arrived, but he still had a bit of a ways to go.

Cordelia, however, was single by choice, not by some unseen horror lurking in her past and present. The only guy she had ever been tied down to, as far as Buffy knew of, had been Xander. That had ended…well, badly was putting it lightly. She loved Willow and Xander, but they had messed up. Willow may have been able to work things out with Oz, but Xander and Cordelia had only just begun to be friendly towards each other again. Well, as friendly as they got, anyway. Buffy had a sinking suspicion that the other girl stayed exclusively single because she didn't want to let anyone in again. She would never admit to it, but Xander had hurt her more than she let on.

And now that she thought about it, even Xander had some weird cat and mouse thing going on with Faith. The one person with possibly something even weirder and a more destiny driven life than herself was able to put aside his own baggage for some potential happiness. It really was kind of depressing now that she thought about it.

"You know, for someone who just got over the living hell that is high school, you look pretty gloomy," Xander said walking up to her on her left.

_'Speak of the devil,'_ Buffy thought, smirking internally.

"You do remember that the school is over an actual mouth to hell, right?"

Xander paused, thinking for a second. "Huh. Guess that gives the saying a whole new meaning. Still, this is a celebration for you guys and you're the only one not celebrating."

"Sorry," Buffy said, offering him a shrug. "Guess the whole 'starting your life' thing doesn't have the same appeal to me since I've already passed the average life expectancy for Slayers."

Even though she said this in a matter-of-fact voice, the words still made Xander become a lot more serious than he had been. "Oh. Yeah, that could seriously put a damper on the mood, huh?"

Buffy waved her hand, hoping to push the topic away. "Really, it's no big deal. Just the typical Slayer stuff."

"Typical _'I'm all alone in the world'_ Slayer stuff? Yeah, 'cause that's a good thing," Xander said, rolling his eyes.

"I never said that," she said without much belief in her voice. "Besides, I'm not going all 'woe is me' girl. I'm just…looking at things in a realistic way." Seeing the look he gave her, she added, "In a possibly depressing realistic way, but still, realistic."

Taking a place next to her on the wall, Xander said, "Well, as long as you're not getting all mopey at your own party, I guess it's OK, then."

Looking to change the topic, Buffy raised an eyebrow asking, "What happened to Faith? I thought you two were getting all snuggly before?"

Blushing, Xander dropped his head, grinning. "We weren't getting snuggly. We were just…"

"Joined at the hip? Literally?" Buffy supplied.

"Fine!" Xander exhaled. "So _maybe_ there might have been a possible moment earlier today."

"But…?"

"_But_ it didn't go anywhere," Xander replied irritably, jerking his head towards Wesley. "Before anything could happen, Wesley came in and ruined the whole thing, that's the '_but'_."

"Oh." Buffy paused, thinking for a moment. "So, if this was a near moment, why isn't she here with you still? She didn't seem awkward before or anything."

"Oh, no. That's actually for you."

Buffy scrunched up her face confused. "She left for me? That's…is that nice for her?"

Chuckling, Xander nodded his head. "For Faith, yes. She said she'd take the patrols for you tonight. She wanted you to enjoy yourself."

Slightly taken back by the gesture, Buffy said, "That…that's actually sweet of her."

"Well, Faith is a sweet girl," Xander told her with a small smile. After a beat, he added,

"Well, OK. In a totally out of the blue and in her own way, Faith is sweet."

"I guess she is. So, why didn't you go with her? It's a lot of ground to cover and if you guys almost had a thing, why didn't you want to be alone with her?"

"I did!" Xander said defensively. "She told me to stay here and make sure you had a good time. Which, seeing you standing here all alone, would make for a very decidedly upset Faith and a very bruised Xander."

"I wasn't standing by myself," Buffy told him. Looking around, she spotted a cup on the end table nearby. "I was getting a drink. See? I had a cup and everything."

"Uh huh," Xander said unbelieving.

Sighing, Buffy picked up the cup, playing with it in her hands. "Really, I'm alright. I'm just…trying to work out what my next move is."

"College? Career?"

"Oh, yeah. I can just see how well that'd go over. I barely made it to enough classes in High School to pass and that was with Giles covering for me half the time. I really doubt that the librarian will be willing to write me notes to my professors."

"So? You don't go patrolling as much or as often. It's no big deal."

Buffy looked Xander in the eyes, knowing that he, of all people, should understand what she meant. "And when the bodies start piling up? Or when some demon tries to raise hell or something else tries to end the world? What do I do then? 'Oops, sorry about the whole apocalypse thing. I was busy studying for a psych test'."

"If the apocalypse happens, we'll give you a call," Xander said with a shrug.

"What do you mean 'we'?"

"Me, Faith, Giles, Wesley?" Xander said shrugging. "Though, between the four of us, I'm pretty sure we can handle whatever comes our way."

"What are you talking about?"

Xander gave her a look. "Buff, did you really think that just because you went off to college that no one would be here to stop the Hellmouth from being all Hellmouthy? Faith is a Slayer, too, remember? She isn't going anywhere. So long as the vamps keep coming this way, she'll be here. And Wesley's still her Watcher, so he isn't running back to England anytime soon, no matter how much we might want him to, sometimes.

"Giles still lives here and he still has his job as Librarian, and I don't think he's going to be turning tail and running just cause you aren't around. Trust me, this place has got enough people looking after it for you to do what you need to. You deserve it."

Shocked, once again, Buffy could only stare at Xander. Finding her voice, she asked, "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"You said you'd be staying here, too. What about what you want to do?"

"If you haven't noticed, I wasn't exactly wearing a cap and gown today."

"So? There's summer school, or early graduation next year, if you worked at it. You could join us at UCS in the spring if you wanted to."

Letting out a breath, Xander said, "Yeah, if I worked at it, I could. I could probably do it by this fall, if Willow and Giles found out I wanted to. They'd work me into the ground with studying, but I'd probably be able to do it. But, I'm not. I don't want to go to UCS"

"Why not?" she asked, slightly hurt that Xander didn't want to be with them in college.

Looking a little uncomfortable, Xander gave her a slight shrug. "Come on, Buff. I barely went to class before all of this happened. School and me don't mix. Now, I have something that I can do, something that has purpose."

"Weren't you just telling me how I didn't have to give up my life because of something 'destiny' thrusted on me? Don't you want something…more than just being the Avatar?"

She searched his eyes, hoping that she would see something there. Something that would let her know that her friend wasn't really thinking about being nothing except the Avatar.

She knew that if there was nothing but the Slayer in her life, she would have gone insane long ago. Having friends didn't just give her a reason to fight because she didn't want to lose them, it kept her grounded. It made her _want_ a normal life. It made her have reasons to live, not just survive. If she didn't have it, she would be nothing but a killing machine. She might be a better Slayer in some ways, in technique, perhaps. But she wouldn't have lived very long.

She saw the way Faith was when it came to being the Slayer. She was full of fire, but that fire could burn both ways. If Faith didn't find something to ground her, something to give her a reason to be more than just the Slayer, she wouldn't last very long. Buffy hoped that Xander might be able to help the younger Slayer with that. Not on his own, of course, that wouldn't be healthy. But she could definitely seeing Xander playing a big role in getting Faith more centered.

None of that would matter, though, if Xander ended up getting sucked into his own supernatural life.

"It's diff-"

"Xander, so help me, if you say 'it's different' I will hit you so hard you'll bounce off the ceiling," Buffy interrupted with a small glare.

"-_icult_," he finished nervously. "It's _difficult_ for me to separate that part of my from the rest of my life."

"You think it's easy for me?" Buffy asked with wide eyes. "This isn't something that just goes away because I want it to. I have to keep my strength in control all the time! Last week, my mom asked me to help open the pickle jar and I broke it in half! Let me tell you, pickle juice stains may be easy to get out of a blouse, but the smell stays. When you don't want to shoot air or freeze water, you don't have to stop yourself, you just _don't_."

"That doesn't mean that I just stop being-"

"-the Avatar, yeah, I know," Buffy interrupted again. "Which isn't any different than me being the Slayer, when it gets into the whole mystic destiny thingy." Calming herself down a bit, Buffy put a hand on Xander's shoulder. "I just don't want to see this take up everything for you. Destiny can't dictate your life."

Instead of a joke or some silly comment to defuse the situation, even if by accident, Xander didn't say anything. He turned his head slightly away from Buffy. He didn't seem like he was at a loss for words, but was choosing not to say anything else on the subject. It was a little annoying for Buffy, realizing, again, just how much Xander had changed. Oh, he undoubtedly would put his foot in his mouth in a few minutes time, but he was showing a lot more restraint when it came to saying whatever came to his mind. She really did have to take him up on those offers to meditate, if it helped him even a little bit.

If she had hoped that Xander would be good for Faith, then who did she hope to be good for Xander? Faith couldn't exactly show him that he needed to be more than just the Avatar, and if he was stuck in that mental state, then he couldn't do anything for Faith. They would only bring themselves further into their own worlds and the odds of surviving long would drop severely.

Not wanting to let this moment pass by, and seeing that everyone else was effectively occupied for the time being, Buffy decided to switch tactics. It wasn't the best moment for what she was going to bring up, but she needed to try and get through to Xander.

"Xan," she started softly, "have you and Faith…I mean, do you guys talk about her at all?"

Xander made a confused face before answering. "Uh, yeah. I mean, it's what people do when they get to know each other. You say something about yourself. They then talk about something in _their_ life. Why? Did she say something?" he asked, suddenly looking panicked. "I swear, I haven't done anything out of line! I've listened. Like, actually listened! I didn't even stare at her…all that much. But that's not my fault! They're right in front of me and you've seen her in those tank tops."

"No! God, no!" Buffy said faking a shiver at where Xander's thoughts were going. "I mean, when you guys talk about her, what is it usually about?"

Back to looking confused, he said, "Um, well…oh! Well, she tells me about when she was with her first Watcher, Diana. She'll talk about her patrols if I didn't go with her, the music she likes, food, TV. You know, normal things."

Buffy nodded her head. "Yeah, normal." She paused, making sure her thoughts were straight before starting again. It wouldn't do anyone any good to have her mess up her words. "But, don't you think that it's a little strange that she never talks about anything that didn't happen in her life before she was a Slayer? She'll talk about Slaying 'til the sun comes up. She'll talk about the music she likes to listen to before she goes out to get pumped up or the food she likes to eat after Slaying.

"But she never talks about her childhood, or what her mom was like."

Xander leaned his head back, his face grown serious. "Some people don't have anything good to say about their childhood, Buff. She doesn't have to tell me what happened for me to pick up on that."

"I know, Xan but…do you remember when I got infected with that demon blood?"

"Yeah, you nearly going insane because I was too close to you rings a bell or two," he responded sadly.

She quelled the urge to comfort him and put him at ease and pressed on. "Then you know that I glimpsed something inside of Faith. Xander…it wasn't pretty. I don't even know what most of it was at the time. But…it was anger, rage."

"Yeah, she's working on it. She's been getting better, you know that."

"Yeah, I do. But that's not…"

"Hey, Dweeb!" Cordelia called out, breaking through their conversation. "We need your whole water magic thing over here. _Wesley_ made me spill my drink on the carpet."

"I most certainly did not!" Wesley cried out in denial.

Shaking his head, Xander put a hand on Buffy's shoulder. "I appreciate the concern, but Faith is alright, Buffy. She had a shaky start, but she's getting through it. I think I know Faith pretty well, better than, well, anyone else here, honestly. If you're really all that worried about her, we can talk about it later. Just, try to enjoy tonight, alright?"

"It's starting to set in!" Cordelia called out again.

Smiling with a roll of his eyes, Xander turned around, heading towards the highly dangerous emergency that was a carpet stain. "One powerful Waterbender, coming up. And stop calling it 'water magic thing'!"

Buffy let out a small groan, letting her head fall back and thud against the wall. She had been so close to getting the words out, to telling Xander exactly what she needed him to be aware of. Of letting him know what she had heard and felt inside of Faith's mind, as well as the information that Giles and Wesley had been able to dig up afterwards. Both the former and current Watcher were adamant about keeping the information to themselves for the time being, at least until more of Faith's records were recovered and the sequential investigation was over. They didn't want to worry anyone until they had everything they thought they needed and that…_man_ had been taken care of. Buffy wasn't even sure what they meant by that and part of her didn't even care.

One thing she didn't agree with them on was not letting anyone know. She didn't want to let everyone in the world know, or even everyone in their little group, but Xander was right. Her, Willow, Oz, and Cordelia would be heading off soon, starting on new parts of their lives. If Buffy fed into the bit about her not needing to be the Slayer as much anymore, which she didn't, then it meant that Xander and Faith would be picking up more of the work and working even closer together. That didn't even take into account their glacier like budding of a relationship. Xander needed to know that there was a potential danger with Faith. Not that it was the girl's fault, or that she couldn't get help and hopefully be stronger for it, but it was still there.

There was danger with Xander as well, but most of that had been quelled after Wesley came back. Who'd have thought that the young, slightly sissy Watcher would have been of, well, any help at all. But based on what he had learned and the books he had brought back with him, Buffy was no longer worried about her Xander-shaped friend no longer being Xander. Granted, it was Xander who did most of the translating, but Giles had double checked a few of the pertinent passages, quietly, of course, and confirmed that what Xander had told them was right. It was slightly frustrating that with everything that was answered with the Avatar's world, more questions would pop up. Like how was it that Wesley just _happened_ to be related to some Queen of Fire or whatever it was Xander called her? It was a little coincidental and that was one of the few things that Buffy did not believe in.

Still, the information had helped to stop the fighting between Giles and Xander, at least somewhat. Giles was still hurt by the secrets, and Xander by the mistrust, but they were at least working on it. It was funny to watch them when they did argue, though, at least after the initial awkwardness wore off. When they got really heated, Xander would slip into one of his other dialects from the Avatar's place while Giles' accent would get more pronounced and he'd use a mix of British slang and bigger words when he yelled. To Buffy, both of them might as well have been talking in different languages since she couldn't understand either of them.

Sighing, resigning herself to try again later on, she moved off the wall and headed back to mingle with everyone else. Xander and Faith were right about one thing. She had survived and this was a celebration so she might as well get with the celebrating.

Half way into the living room, the doorbell rung. As she changed directions, heading to the front door instead of the living room, Buffy secretly hopes that it would be Faith. All this thinking about her, about what she went through and must be feeling, it's really made her want to include the girl more. It was still odd being with her for extended periods of time. Something about the other girl raised the hairs on the back of her neck. Maybe it was some kind of Slayer thing, like an Alpha-female or something. The same kind of thing that made her want to pit herself against Xander and beat him. Still, she'd be willing to suppress that urge if it meant that it might do some good.

The doorbell rang again.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Buffy muttered. "Hold on, will you?"

Putting down the cup she had picked up on a small table by the front door, Buffy palmed a short knife that was tucked away behind the back of her belt. Just because a vampire couldn't come in uninvited didn't mean that other things couldn't come in whenever they felt like it. Not that many demons or monsters would ring a doorbell, but it never hurt to be prepared.

For a moment, as she opened the door, she thought it might be Angel. He had said he would stop by, after all, and the sun had been down for a couple of hours at this point. She smiled slightly, hopping that it would actually be her boyfriend.

That smile quickly dropped as she opened the door to reveal a man who was decidedly _not_ Angel.

In the split-second when she first saw him, Buffy's brain went into Slayer mode.

The cane he was propped up against was for actual use and not just for sympathy or misdirection. His eyes were slightly blood shot and the dark circles under his eyes spoke of sleep deprivation. But his stance spoke of someone who knew how to handle themselves, at least as much as anyone with a busted leg could. The gun at his hip pointed at her also might have had something to do with her threat assessment of him, of course.

He smiled easily at her, his face not showing any malice.

"Sorry to come barging in like this, but I'm looking for Alexander Harris. And while I'm sure you're thinking of knocking this gun out of my hands, don't try it. I'm not here for you, or a fight. I'm just looking to talk. Tell him Lindsey McDonald is here for him."

Before she could react, Buffy felt something shove her out of the way before a gust of wind rushed past her, hitting the man calling himself Lindsey fully, sending him down the porch steps, tumbling end over end.

Moving away from the door she had been knocked into, Buffy turned to see Xander standing behind where she had been, his face devoid of any emotion, giving nothing away. But while he may have been able to hide his emotions slightly, the orb of water splitting and freezing into several icicles behind him with a clench of his fist gave away his state of mind.

She noticed everyone gather behind Xander, Giles and Wesley keeping between the confrontation and everyone else. She didn't bare spare them a glance, though, turning to keep her eyes on the man who had shown up at her door with a gun. While he was struggling to get up, his cane falling several feet away from him when he went down the steps, he was still armed. The gun was firmly in his hand and pointed at Xander now, though it looked to be paining him to do so while he forced himself back to his feet. Buffy had to trust that Giles and Wesley would get everyone to safety and out of the way.

Xander walked swiftly past her and out the door, the deadly sharp icicles following him almost without his notice.

"What part of 'talk' did you not understand?" Lindsey said, breathing heavily as he stood up fully, favoring his good side.

"The part where you pointed a _gun_ at my friend in her own home," Xander told him, breathing heavily. "The part where you show up here at all, or anywhere in the same _state_ as me, even." The ice behind Xander lifted higher into the air and pointed directly at Lindsey. "Give me a reason. Just _one_, that's all."

Glancing up, Lindsey saw the ice pointed at him, but didn't seem worried about it. "Kid, if I was going to come after you, you think this is what I'd do?"

Buffy made her way outside, making sure to stand next to Xander, but not too close so as to not give Lindsey two targets. She was just close enough to hear Xander whisper harshly, "No. You'd come in with a whole team."

Tension as powerful as electricity seemed to pulse between the man and Xander, the two of them staring each other down. Neither was giving an inch and Buffy was getting put more on edge by the second without any action after essentially being attacked. She forced herself to stay focused, to calm her adrenaline fuelled body and make the tension work for her. Already, she had poised the knife where she would be able to get a clear shot at throwing it at Lindsey if he made a move. Granted, it wouldn't be faster than a bullet, but she'd be able to stop him from getting off more than a shot or two.

The comment that Xander had made just now and the obvious fact that the two men knew each other, made her start to piece together just who Lindsey might be. Her stomach dropped a bit as she thought about, but kept quiet at the moment. Lindsey was part of the group that had attacked Xander at his home months ago, the team from the law firm from hell. She didn't know how or when Xander had met him personally, if the guy was just someone who had been in the van with him or what, but it didn't matter right now.

Lindsey seemed to come to a decision of some kind, letting his hand fall to the side, the gun now pointing at the ground.

"There," he said, "happy now?"

"Not even close," Xander replied, the icicles still hanging in midair.

"Come on, Harris," Lindsey said, still not nearly as concerned about the impending skewering as he should be. "Really, you think this was my master plan? Show up, in plain sight, and shoot you and the Slayer?"

"Xander," Buffy said quietly, taking a step closer to him when he didn't respond. She didn't say anything else, not wanting to startle him and accidently have him send the ice spikes into Lindsey, at least not before they found out what he was doing here. When he stayed silent, all but his hand moving, Buffy reached out and gently put her hand on his shoulder.

The contact seemed to snap Xander out of whatever he was going through internally. His breathing suddenly sped up and his hands started to shake. Buffy watched as his control slipped and the ice fell to the ground, shattering harmlessly. Buffy whirled back towards Lindsey, fully expecting him to take advantage of no longer being threatened immediately. Instead, the man in the cowboy boots, as she now noticed his shoes, was busy rubbing his bad leg and glancing around warily.

"What do you want?" Buffy snapped, standing in front of Xander while he got himself under control.

"Like I said, I came here to talk, that's all." Lindsey gave a look over his shoulder, turning back, saying, "Not here, though. Inside, off the streets."

Snorting, Buffy gave him a level look. "You really think I'm going to invite you into my house? Whatever you have to say, you can say it out here. Afterwards, we'll see if it's worth not beating you on the spot."

"No, it can't," Lindsey said forcefully. "You think that just because Wolfram and Hart haven't been busting down your doors that they aren't planning something, that they don't have this placed monitored?" He snorted, shaking his head. "You people have no idea what you're up against."

"Then why don't you tell us," Giles said, coming down the porch steps. He had the look of a man taking the steps casually, unconcerned with the scenario. Like Xander, though, he had a tell. His was a loaded crossbow pointed at Lindsey's chest.

"Gladly," Lindsey said, with a forced smile and dropping it just as fast. "Inside."

Before Buffy could deny him again, Giles beat her to it.

"I believe Buffy made it perfectly clear. You are, in no way shape or form, getting inside of her home. To be clear, you are _not_ invited in."

"I'm not a vampire, you moron," Lindsey muttered.

Ignoring him, Giles braced the crossbow against his shoulder, looking down the shaft for a better shot, saying, "Now, if you don't start talking, I'll start with your good knee and move up from there. Or do you need further motivation?"

Unlike the icicles from before, Lindsey didn't dismiss this threat as easily. He eyed Giles with caution, his stance becoming as defensive as possible given his obvious disadvantage.

"You people are going to be killed, you know that?"

"Tell me something we don't know," Buffy told him, arms folded. "Now say something useful before Giles finger gets twitchy."

Shaking his head, muttering something under his breath, Lindsey looked past Buffy, at Xander. "I mean, tonight. You're going to be killed, tonight."

"What?" Buffy and Xander said together.

"You, Harris, and the Slayer," Lindsey said nodding towards both of them, before turning to Giles. "You, too, and probably everyone inside the house, just to be sure. By the time the firm is done, there won't be enough left of you people to fill in a shallow grave."

"What?" Buffy repeated, trying to shake the shock away.

"Sweetheart, you and yours are headed into a huge trap and you never saw it coming."

"What trap? Why would we walk into a trap?" Xander asked, his voice gaining some of its edge again. "Is it you? Is that why you're here?"

Lindsey scrunched up his face in frustration. "Jesus, kid, what is it, really? I came here, risking my freakin' neck for you people and what the hell do I get for it, huh? We don't have time for you to work through your freakin' issues at the moment, so put 'em aside and man up!"

"Maybe it's just me," Buffy said, watching Xander take a step back from Lindsey's outburst, "but, the gun is making it a bit hard to trust you. Oh, and the whole showing up here with it? Not earning you any brownie points."

"Why are you here?" Giles asked softly, though his voice leaving no doubt that a wrong answer would be painful for the man.

Taking a deep breath, Lindsey said, "Like I told you all, you're about to fall into a trap that'll see you all dead by dawn. You're already in the middle of it, even if you can't see it."

He chuckled, slightly crazily, adding, "And I'm here to make sure you get out of it on one piece."


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: Here I thought that the summer would mean more time to write and things like that. Well, that plan went to hell. But, here's the next chapter, after much revision and rewrites. Thanks to Greywizard for beta-ing this, twice, and getting it to me quickly. To everyone who has reviewed, thanks a lot. It is a motivation kicker. Sorry if I haven't replied to everyone, but they get away from me. Well, enough of this crap. On with the story!

Chapter 19

"Why?" Buffy demanded.

"Does it matter? Without my help, all of you are dead. That should be enough for you people." Lindsey shook his head before looking her straight in the eyes. "If you don't believe it, I can just head on back the way I came. If you aren't going to listen to me, I'd at least like to get a head start."

Frowning in thought, she asked, "You're doing this to save your own skin?"

Chuckling dryly, Lindsey replied, "Nothing as simple as that. I help you and I'm as good as dead."

"Then why do it?" Xander asked his voice distant, detached.

"What does it matter?"

"I'd say, rather a lot." Giles moved further away from Lindsey, his eyes looking from the man to behind Buffy and Xander, watching their backs. "Forgive us for being suspicious of your motives. Though, not shooting you on sight will have to make up for it, wouldn't you say?"

Lindsey smirked at the ex-Watcher. "I can see why they wanted you alive. Don't worry, they don't think you'll make it that easy for them, but the Firm was never able to pass up the chance at new talent. Can we get back to the point here, though?"

"You mean other than you wanting us to trust you? Sure, let's," Buffy said.

"No, I mean that, in the next few minutes, something's going to happen that's going to make all of you run straight into the hands of some people that'll flatten you in seconds."

Buffy glanced quickly behind Lindsey. With an opening line like that, she expected it to be a cue for something to suddenly come out of hiding. When nothing did, she darted her eyes towards Giles, who caught her gaze and gave a small shake of his head. Like her, he had been looking for anything coming up behind her and Xander. Either there was something there that was so good at sneaking up that neither she nor Giles had caught it, or no one was with Lindsey. It didn't make her trust the guy anymore, but it did make her more willing to listen to him. Though if she could do it with him duck taped to a chair away from the rest of her family and friends, she'd be even more willing.

"I didn't say right now," Lindsey said, looking at them like they were stupid. "What the hell kind of a warning would it be if I told you during an attack, huh? If we don't stop standing out here like sitting targets, holding our dicks in our hands, it'll be too late and I might as well have never come."

"You're not getting anywhere near that house again," Xander told him harshly. "If you take another step towards it, I'll freeze the blood in your veins right where you stand."

The hate and anger in his voice was scary enough, but there was something else there that made Buffy believe that he would do it. She had no idea if he actually could, but the threat didn't seem empty. She thought about everything that she had seen Xander do and it made her pause. He could rip the water from a tree, leaving it a dried out husk. He could move the ocean to form waves that could wipe out towns, maybe even cities. He could turn the very bend of a river if he wanted to. Was it really so much of a stretch that he could use the water in a person's body against them? It surprised her so much that she couldn't help but turn towards her friend, eyes slightly wide at the idea of him being able to do something like that. Both in his ability and in his willingness to do it. The very thought of that kind of power was scary, but not as much as his willingness to use it.

Lindsey, shook his head, his lips turned up at the corners slightly. For a minute, Buffy thought the other man might think that Xander was bluffing and was calling it. When he spoke, it wasn't his disbelief that got to Buffy, but his knowledge.

"Ya sure about that? Blood Bending's a bit dark for the Avatar, don't ya think? Not to mention, out of your league, right now." Looking up, Lindsey made a show of searching the night sky for something. He looked back at Xander, who now was the one with the shocked expression, saying, "Besides, last time I checked the full moon ain't nowhere to be seen. In fact, tonight's a New Moon."

"How did you…"

Lindsey dropped the smile. "I told you, these people are professionals. They know all about you, probably more than you even know about yourself. It's what I've been trying to tell you, now get your head out of your ass before-"

An engine roared to life, cutting Lindsey off. Down the street, a block away, two bright headlights flared to life, pointed directly at Buffy and Xander causing them to squint. Tires squealed and the car was off, heading right for them and picking up speed.

"Christ, they're early," Lindsey exclaimed, cocking his gun and awkwardly turning to face the oncoming car.

"Who's early?"

Lindsey turned his head behind, shouting quickly, "Four vamps and two Hyvrock demons, that's who!"

"Hyvrocks!" Giles exclaimed, quickly facing the car as well.

"Damn right," Lindsey yelled. "Hit 'em quick, aim for the eyes, and only one of us might die…if we're lucky."

The car was almost on top of them, as Buffy tensed, ready for whatever was about to happen. She didn't know what the hell kind of demon Lindsey was talking about, but anything that you aimed for the eyes on was pretty hard to kill. The only reason to do that meant that these things were either damn tough or only had one way to kill them. Either way, she wasn't looking forward to it.

The car didn't bother slowing down and would have mowed everyone down if they hadn't been prepared for that. Xander had leapt past Buffy, grabbing Giles and dragging him out of harm's way. Knowing that Lindsey wouldn't be able to get himself clear with his leg, Buffy tackled him to the ground, rolling a few times 'til they stopped. The car roared past them, the smell of burning rubber already filling her nose at it tried to turn and make another go at them at high speed. Had it been a van, the thing would have been on its side with how sharp it managed to turn.

Buffy was back on her feet in an instant, followed quickly by Xander, who joined her at her side. Lindsey clutched his bum leg, the landing clearly hurting him. Giles wasn't hurt, but despite putting himself in harm's way and coming out mostly unscathed, he was far older than any of them and it would take him a few seconds longer to get to his feet. Precious seconds that they didn't have, if any of them didn't want to be road kill.

"Get ready," Xander said, spreading his arms out at his sides.

"Ready to be flattened? Sure, no problem," Buffy shot back, already bending her knees to dive out of the way again.

Jumping a step forward, Xander spread his arms out behind him before sweeping them forward as he landed. On either side of him, entire lawns suddenly turned brown and died as water was pulled violently from the ground and every blade of grass.

The water rushed towards the driver and passenger side. Buffy didn't know what Xander hoped to accomplish, since there wasn't any way the liquid could slow the car down or push it away in enough time. Apparently, he had other ideas. Instead of slamming against the sides of the car, Xander turned his hands palm up and brought them up sharply, freezing the water into two small blocks of ice half as high as the car with large spikes protruding towards the vehicle.

The sound of the metal being torn and ripped by the ice was enough to make Buffy wince, even as she jumped out of the way to avoid being hit. She didn't have to, as she found out. The ice must have either been frozen directly onto the street or had just enough friction to do the job, but the car came to a violent stop. Xander must have expected this, since he stood right in front of where the car had been heading, looking angry and determined. It was an intense scene, the headlights casting Xander's features in a harsh relief, his hair slightly messed up by air he had called up before, his Waterbending stance both graceful and deadly. It was quite a moment.

Unfortunately, vampires as a whole aren't exactly the most forward thinking bunch. Driving at high speeds is great when you're trying to run over a bunch of people. Not wearing a seatbelt while doing so, however, isn't the best idea in the world. Both driver and passenger crashed through the windshield, flying right into Xander, bringing them all to the ground in a heap.

Sprinting forward, Buffy was already on top of one of the first vampire before he was able to detangle himself. He was big, a little over six feet, solid and probably would have been a bit of trouble had he been more aware of what was going on. The crash had him rattled, though, and Buffy took full advantage of it. Two rabbit punches to the head had him even more disoriented and a right hook had him floored.

The second vampire, slightly smaller than the first, was lifted up and off of Xander by a powerful wind, crashing him onto the hood of a parked jeep where he laid limply. Xander got to his feet quickly, standing at the ready just as the roof of the car was torn into from the inside by two sharp clawed hands. Again, the sound of squealing metal filled the air as the roof was pulled apart.

Once the hole was big enough, the remaining two of the quartet of vampires climbed out, rushing to get on either side of Buffy and Xander. They weren't enough to circle and close them in, but then again that wasn't their tactic. Buffy quickly moved closer to Xander till they were almost touching, trying to keep as little space between them as possibly. They didn't want the two of them to be surrounded, Buffy thought as she heard the car shake and whine against the ice as the last two occupants moved about inside. No, they didn't want to trap them, they wanted to separate them. Split their attention, divide their strengths, and then go in for the kill. Buffy had done it a few times with Angel and Faith when taking on a nest. Usually, it worked.

The roar of a gun startled Buffy, but she refused to let it show. She watched the vamp on Xander's side twitch and stumble back a few steps as three bullets tore through him, but he didn't go down.

"Yeah, that's a great idea," Lindsey yelled, still on the ground, gun raised. He took two more shots, one of them hitting the vampire in the thigh this time and bringing him to one knee. "Let's all stand around till everyone gets into position."

"Kind of has a point," Buffy muttered to Xander.

The twang of Giles' crossbow was quickly followed the sound of the vampire on Buffy's side turning to dust.

"Just makes me hate him even more," Xander said flatly before moving forward and bending some of the ice to him, melting it back into water on the way.

Trusting the others to take care of the remaining vampires, Buffy held the small dagger in a reverse grip and started towards the car. The two whatever-the-hell demons were in there still. She honestly didn't care what Lindsey had called them. From Giles reaction, she knew they had to be tough, but how was that any different from what she'd faced before now? Every demon was the strongest, the fastest, and the most durable…right up until the point where they weren't any more. With quick, purposeful strides, Buffy made it to the car, ignoring the tiny voice asking, _"Couldn't the same be said about you?"_

"Come out, and I promise to only make it hurt a little before I kill you," Buffy said to the occupants of the car.

The shaking and noises coming from within stopped at the sound of her words. Rolling her eyes internally, Buffy sidestepped out of the way, just in time to avoid being hit by the brunt of the ice that exploded outwards as the backdoor of the car flew away. She wasn't expecting quite that to happen -the demons were stronger than average to be able to smash the door and ice away without much leverage- but when everything goes quiet after announcing yourself it was a sure sign that something was about to happen. At least, it meant that even if these demons were strong, they were still predictable.

The first demon stepped out of the car -well, stepping out would be too smooth a description of its actions. This thing had to grab the frame of where the door had been in order to pull itself out. When it finally stood up to its full height, Buffy's eyes widened, her neck straining slightly from looking up. She was normally used to having to look up to most people given her height, but this thing was ridiculously tall, over seven feet! How the thing had even managed to get in the car boggled her mind.

It resembled a bug more than anything else. Scales layered its skin, shiny green and black things that overlapped, making it look like it was wearing armor. Two long legs ended in three sharp looking talons as thick as two fingers each. Its arms were almost as long as its legs. They were thin and disjointed, giving a strange broken look to them. It didn't detract from the claws on the four fingers, or what could only be described as thorns running up and down what passed for the things forearms.

Large silver eyes glared down at her. They reflected her own small distorted image in its multi-faceted eyes, unblinkingly. When it opened its mouth, it was hard for Buffy not to notice that it opened sideways, showing a second and third set of what she could only assume to be lips.

"Holy shit," she muttered.

"Get the hell out of the way," Lindsey yelled at her, limping towards her, gun raised and pointed at the demon.

Not needing another reason, Buffy rolled to the left, making herself as small as possible in case Lindsey's shots went wide. She never cared for guns, but if it meant not having to get in close with this thing, she'd make an exception.

The second she was down on the ground, she heard several shots being fired as well as the sound of each bullet careening off the things skin.

"_No, that would have been too easy,"_ she thought to herself, a bit resentfully. _"Can't have that, can we?"_

"Will you stop firing that damn thing! You're not helping matters," Giles said harshly, another arrow leaving his cross bow with a _thwang_. Like the bullets, it did nothing to harm the demon, breaking on its skin and falling harmlessly to the ground.

"Oh, yeah, that's much better."

Jumping back up, Buffy rushed its side, hoping to catch it off guard and get in a few good hits. She succeeded in not being noticed, for which she was grateful, but she might as well have been kicking a steel wall. Her leg shook from the impact and the demon didn't even budge; Her attack did, however, attract its attention back to her.

It swung out with its fist and forearm, using its thorns as a weapon that could easily do serious damage. But, while this thing was stronger than her, it wasn't nearly as fast. She dodged everything it threw at her, even when its arm would suddenly bend at an impossible angle half way through a punch, trying to slip past her defenses. She couldn't dance around this thing all night, though. Sooner or later she would get tired, if it didn't, and if she got tagged by its thorns, she wouldn't have much of a chance after that. She needed to put it down, fast. The question was how.

It was only by luck that she managed to go right instead of left as she moved away from another strike. Had she gone the other way, she would have been smashed on her head by the second equally as ugly demon coming up behind her.

Cursing herself for forgetting about the second one, she had to redouble her efforts to keep away from each attack, both of them pressing her till she had no choice but to start moving towards the car. Lindsey and Giles would be useless against these things, even with their weapons. They couldn't penetrate their skin with their arrows or bullets and unless one of them got a lucky shot in and hit the eyes, they weren't going to be any good to her right now. What she needed was a second to breathe and regroup her thoughts, to put a little distance between herself and these things.

Sliding back, taking short little steps as both demons inched closer as well, she tried to judge the gap between herself and the car. She had to time it just right, or else she'd end up being torn apart. When her back foot touched the front wheel, she faked forward, letting the demons make a grab for her, before back flipping onto the hood and jumping away 'til the car was between them.

The demons roared in anger at her deception. Black drool oozed out of the corner of their mouths as they smashed the car's hood, denting it and tearing into the metal.

"Back-up on the way," Xander called out to her, running up behind her.

She watched as, with a simple motion on his part, the remaining ice on her side melted, only to reform into an icy ramp which Xander used to slide himself up and over the car. The ice on the other side was already reshaping itself to catch him and propel him forward at the same time. Before he stopped, the ice had begun to melt, encasing his arms in water, letting him lash out with whips as thick around as his thighs. They did about as much damage to the demons as the gun and arrows had, but the force and weight of the water at least pushed the two things back a few steps with every hit.

These things weren't smart, but they were damn near impervious to harm which more than made up for their lack of any planning. You didn't have to be intelligent if you could walk through a battle field and not worry about being killed. If their eyes really were the only weak point then she'd need something to distract them. She'd have preferred something like a tractor truck running them over, but Xander would have to do.

"Xand! This way!" Buffy yelled, motioning toward the middle of the street, already moving into position.

She watched as Xander continued to lash at the two demons, pushing them around more than anything else, but still doing a fair job of herding them towards where Buffy had motioned to him. She was impressed with her friend's ability to control more and more water. As he moved, he had brought the other mound of ice to him, turning it back into its liquid form and using it to push the demons back further than before with each hit. With a final movement, Xander brought the water behind him before giving one giant push forward. The water roared, shoving the demons back and knocking one of them to the floor.

It was as good a time as any to move.

Coming up behind the still standing demon, Buffy kicked at the bend where its knee should be. Skin as tough as stone didn't mean a damn thing when it came to how a body moved, and the kick had the desired effect. It dropped to one leg, growling in a high pitch tone. Careful to avoid its arms and thorns, she plunged her dagger into the thing's left eye, jumping back as it thrashed wildly.

"Is it just me or did stabbing this thing in the head not work as well as it should have?" Xander asked, continuing to move in a short bending pattern. The water rolled back and forth like a small wave pool, first one way and then the other, swirling and spinning quickly. The downed demon hadn't been able to get his feet on the ground long enough to get upright. Each time it had tried, Xander would use the water to knock him right back down again.

"Both eyes!" Lindsey yelled off to the side, frustrated. "Both eyes, damn it!"

Standing up again, the demon turned to face Buffy, its one good, giant bug like eye showing hate. It didn't even bother taking the dagger out of its other eye, it simply stalked forward, clenching and unclenching its claws.

"Next time tell me that _before_ I lose my _only_ weapon!" Buffy shouted back.

"Buffy!" Giles called suddenly.

His tone of voice wasn't one of immediate danger. She had long since learned the difference in their many nights training on stake outs. _"Damn it, why did all of her really good puns go to waste?"_ she grumbled in her head. Turning swiftly, Buffy was just in time to catch the loaded crossbow Giles had tossed. Continuing the movement, she spun on the spot, holding the crossbow with both hands like a club, and smashed it into the oncoming demon's face. The weapon splintered and broke into several pieces, the lath nearly hitting her in the face as it fly off. But, the butt now had a sharp point to it where the rest of the crossbow had broken away. Without a bit of hesitation, she rammed the makeshift stake into the remaining eye of the demon. There wasn't any howl of pain or thrashing this time. The moment the wood entered his skull, it stopped. One moment it was hissing and moving, and the next it stopped in its tracks, falling dead to the ground in mid-step.

Breathing slightly heavy, Buffy looked down at the body. "Huh. For how tough these things are, they don't really put up much of a fight, do they?"

"Speak for yourself," Xander replied.

In the time that it had taken Buffy to kill her demon, Xander had managed to wrap the water around his and froze the liquid solid, encasing the thing from head to toe in four to five inches of ice all around. Still, the ice continued to shake ever so slightly. Apparently, the thing didn't have to worry about breathing all that much.

"Don't worry," Xander said reassuringly. "This thing is rock solid. It's not going anywhere."

"You could have shot his eye, instead of destroying my crossbow," Giles muttered exasperated.

Satisfied in Xander's ability, and ignoring Giles' remark, Buffy turned back to Lindsey. "So, that was it? That was Wolfram and Hart's big plan to get at Xander? Four vampires and a pair of demons?"

"You really think that was the plan? Kid, this is the big leagues you and your group have been drafted into. That was just the distraction, the decoy, the….the fucking Kansas City shuffle," Lindsey said irritated.

"The what?"

Lindsey shook his head, almost sadly before turning to each of them. "Tell me that none of you thought it just a bit strange that not a single other person in that house came out to help? That you've got another Watcher, a budding witch, and another fighter inside there, and that not a one of them came out here to lend a hand while we were throwing down?"

Realization dawned on Buffy at Lindsey's words. A fresh dose of adrenaline coursed through her veins as she ran towards her front door. She didn't bother calling out to anyone inside. For one thing, it would just waste the time she would use to stop and shout out for someone. She was faster than her own voice right now, even her own thoughts. Secondly, if someone or something was there she didn't want to give them a warning.

Taking the steps on her porch all at once, Buffy went too fast to stop and open the door like a normal person. Deciding that speed was the better part of not having her friends and mother killed, she didn't bother trying to slow down and, instead, slammed her shoulder into the door. The frame cracked and the door swung open, but Buffy didn't stop there. She didn't stop until she turned into the living room and that was only because of the scene in front of her.

The whole of the living room had been wrecked. Bookcases had been knocked down, scattering books and breaking knick knacks. The coffee table, missing two of its legs, had been thrown against the wall, cracking the wood and wall alike. The couch, which had been turned over, had Oz and Cordelia behind it, each holding a makeshift weapon of some kind. After making sure no one else was either in danger or a threat, she ignored the rest of the room, though careful to not step on any glass, and made her way to the pair.

Oz had one of the coffee tables legs in both hands, holding it like a club. Though his face was grim and the beginnings of a nasty bruise could be seen on the side of his face, he relaxed somewhat when he saw Buffy walk in. He didn't drop the leg, but his face and body stopped holding so much tension in them.

Cordelia didn't stand to her full height 'til after Oz did. Like Oz, her weapon was grabbed from out of the destruction of the living room. She had grabbed a small lamp from off a ruined end table, holding it somewhat like Oz was holding the leg. Unlike Oz, however, she was holding it by the base with the lamp shade still on it. If she had managed to hit whatever had did this with her blunt object, she wouldn't have done much damage. Annoyed them, sure, but it wouldn't have done her any good.

"Where's everyone else?" Buffy asked, fear gripping her insides. Oz wouldn't have separated from Willow unless there hadn't been any other option.

"Demons, two of them," Oz said.

Buffy was about to ask what happened when she caught site of what was on the ground between Oz and Cordelia, sucking in a breath. Oz hadn't been hiding out or out of the fight, away from Willow. He had been out of the fight _because_ of Willow.

Lying on her side, Willow could have looked like she was sleeping, if it wasn't for the blood coating her already red hair. It didn't look as if the wound was still gushing, but a small trickle of blood ran down from her scalp to her face, running across her eyes and forming a small pool on the floor.

Seeing her reaction, Oz shook his head, saying, "She's alive, just knocked out. They hit her first."

Looking at him, eyes wide, she asked, "Where's my mom?"

"Upstairs. Wesley's with her. They followed them up there, but-"

Whatever else Oz was going to tell her could wait 'til after she found out what happened to her mother. Running for the stairs, she almost collided with Giles. Sparing him a glance, she dodged around him and went up the stairs. Hearing Giles run into the living room helped ease at least that part of her mind. Her friends would have someone watching over them that she trusted for the moment. Her bedroom door was off its hinges, and with all the other doors open and not ruined, she went for her room, letting her fear and anger fuel her, readying herself to tear whatever had done this, whatever had put her mother in danger, limb from limb.

Skidding to a halt on the carpet, she took the room in in an instant. Much like the living room, it was a complete mess with objects and furniture alike thrown about. A breeze blew into the room from the smashed window which, with the lack of glass on the floor, meant someone or something had gone out of it. The difference in the post warzone motif upstairs was the demon slumped against the wall with the blade of a long sword sticking out of its thick blue neck. On the floor in front of the demon, Wesley laid face down, clearly unconscious.

With no sign of her mother, and the window broken, Buffy had no choice but to turn the Watcher over and, as gently as she could, slap him, trying to wake him up. It took three tries, but he finally came around.

"Wesley," Buffy said firmly, trying to get him to focus. "Wesley, what happened? Where's my mother?"

"Wha…what?"

"My mother, Wesley," she repeated. "Where is she?"

He blinked a few times before finally noticing her. "Buffy," he said weakly. "Are you alright? There was…there was an attack." Wincing, he moved to touch his head, only to hiss as his hand made contact, coming away bloody.

"I know," she said, trying to keep his attention. "Wesley, two demons came in. One of them is over there, so where's the other? Where's my mom? Did you hide her?"

Turning drunkenly towards the demon, Wesley grimaced in a triumphant way. "I got one. I got the bastard."

"Wesley!" Buffy yelled. "Where. Is. My. Mother!"

He turned back to her, looking confused for a split second before his eyes went wide. "Your mother! Dear lord, she had come up with me, I wanted to get her away from the fighting," Wesley said, getting more coherent with each word. He sat up, slowly, continuing. "One of them followed us up here. I grabbed a weapon from your closet and fought it -I wanted to keep it away from your mother, I swear."

"What happened?" Buffy asked, feeling as if she was suddenly going up on a huge rollercoaster.

"I…I bested the thing, but by that time, the second one had made it up and grabbed Joyce. I tried to stop it…" He trailed off, shame coloring his face.

Buffy didn't care about his feelings, not right now. The rollercoaster her stomach was on went over the top and had completely dropped. Her legs felt weak and if she hadn't been kneeling, she probably would have fallen to the floor herself.

Someone had taken her mother. Someone had sent demons to her house, her _home_, and taken her mother from her. It hadn't been done because they were demons and that was what they do or because this was about her being the Slayer. This was a plan, this was someone's idea of a good idea of achieving their goal, of getting what they wanted. Not directly, not through her or Xander, but through someone else, someone that had nothing to do with any of this and simply because she had a connection to them.

She felt more than saw Giles come into the room. He stood for a few second, doing as she had done and taking in the scene. Apparently, he didn't need Wesley to explain what had happened.

"Joyce…" he said, falling heavily against the wall by the doorway.

A single hot, angry tear rolled down Buffy's cheek. She wanted to curl into a ball, let everything out and stay like that while she wished her mommy back to her. But, she had learned long ago that wishes like that didn't come true and would accomplish nothing. Later, there would be time to cry about this ordeal, to let the pain she was feeling out.

Now, it was time to make someone else feel that pain.

Taking what she was feeling, she rolled it into a ball and shoved it away to the other side of her mind. She would use it later. She would forge her pain into a weapon and cut the heads off of anyone who got in her way tonight. She was going to storm whatever place held her mother, slay anything and everything in the place, and get her back. The idea that she may not be alive didn't even cross her mind. She _would_ get her mother back, alive and well.

But first, she had to get up.

Standing up, shaking with every movement from barely controlled rage, Buffy turned to Giles.

"Giles." When he didn't answer right away, she said more forcefully, "_Giles_! I need you right now. We don't have time for this. I need you to go downstairs and get Oz and Cordelia to take Willow and Wesley to the hospital."

"No, I'm coming with you. I don't need a hospital," Wesley protested.

"You can barely stand, you'll only get in the way and like I said, we don't have the time." She paused, seeing the argument that was about to ensue. "Wesley, you tried to protect my mom and took out one of these things on your own, and I thank you for doing that. But if you want to help, then get someone to see to your head. I'm going to need you later, _after_ we get back."

"You know where they took her?" Giles said, his voice hard. She wondered if this was him letting a bit of the Ripper out. If it helped, she'd gladly see him let the whole damn thing out of its cage.

Walking past him, she steeled herself for what she may have to do to get that answer out of Lindsey. She would do it, too. Whatever needed to be done, whatever violent and painful act she might have to perform to find out what she needed, she would do it. She was prepared to tell Giles just this, when several things stopped her.

First, Xander was gone. So was the demon, in fact. Both of them were nowhere to be seen and the ice that had the creature trapped was nothing more than a puddle of water on the floor. She didn't have a clue as to what had happened, but she could guess as to where Xander had gone. It was the same place she intended to go as soon as she figured out where that place was- and why in the world there was a man with a sword fighting off a blue demon down the street from her house.

The same blue demon that had taken her mother. In fact, he was fighting off the same blue demon that had taken her mother _while_ keeping her mother behind him and defending her from the thing's attacks.

It wasn't a very long fight, not as things like this go. Buffy had sparred with Giles with swords, even once or twice with Wesley. She knew her own abilities with a sword were far above theirs even if their techniques where better due to constant practice with it and years of honing their skills. This man, however, used the long sword he held like it was a part of him. He parried the demon's own attacks with an expertise she had never seen. Its arms had to be harder than they looked since the sharpness of the man's blade seemed to have little or no effect on it. The man would slice at it whenever it came in close enough and drive it back, thrusting the blade at a weak spot near the neck and joints. All the while, he made sure that Joyce was out of harm's way.

In thirty seconds, though, it was all over. The demon had come too close, swiping at Joyce's head. Though it missed completely, the sword wielding man had had enough. Even from down the block, Buffy could see the change in his stance, see his shoulders set in determination. He moved forward, and then, quicker than the human eye could see, he ended the fight. Two swift movements, a sharp snicker-snack, and the demon lost its head.

She should have gone to help, she should have run for her mother to keep her safe, but she was too stunned to even move. Buffy had been setting herself up for a fight that was no longer needed. The emotional roller coaster had ended, in a way, and now she felt drained. Her knees wobbled slightly and her arms felt weak. It took everything she had just to stay upright. She could only watch, eyes following of their own accord, as the man took off his jacket, a light colored canvas work one, and placed it around her mother's shoulders and led her to the house.

It wasn't until they were nearly in front of her that she was able to move again.

"There we are, miss. Safe and sound, just like I promised," he told Joyce, giving her a warm smile. "Everything will be alright."

"Oh, Buffy!" Joyce said, sounding shaken, but otherwise alright. "It was horrible! These demons, they broke into the house. Mr. Pryce tried to stop them, but they were so strong!"

Buffy listened, hearing the words, but failing to process them. It didn't matter what anyone said, she had her mom back. Nothing else mattered, right now. She was going to say something, something important, but the words wouldn't come out. Closing her eyes, she tried to think of the words. When she opened them again, she had moved. Her arms were around her mother, hugging her tight. Almost too tight, but it didn't matter. She was OK, her mom was OK.

Hearing a polite cough, Buffy instinctively moved to protect her mother, pushing her behind her as the man had done. Not that she found polite coughs particularly threatening, but it was pure instinct from being startled by the noise. The man, who she could see clearly now, was standing a respectful distance away so as to be as unobtrusive as possible.

While he seemed genuinely happy to see the two women showing so much love for each other, his eyes seemed saddened for some reason. When he spoke, his voice was polite, but firm.

"I hate to do this, I truly do, but I need to speak with you," he said to Buffy. "If it could wait, I would. It's about your friend, Alexander."

"Xander?" Buffy asked, once again feeling fear and anger seep its way into her thoughts. "What happened to him?"

"As far as I know, he's alright. For now, anyway," the man turned his gaze to Lindsey who, up until this point, had been hacking and coughing up water in the middle of the street. Now he just laid there, panting. "I can't say for how long that will be the case, though, which is why you need to hurry."

"Listen, buddy. I know you just saved my mom and, ya know, thanks for that, but who the hell are you?" Buffy demanded.

His lips turned down in a slight frown and he looked ready to scold her about something, but instead, shook his head lightly muttering something under his breath. The sword, Buffy noted, had been placed in a sheath on his belt. She eyed it when he moved, wondering if he was going to go for it. It had been that kind of night. It was a little surprising to her when, instead of reaching for a weapon, he held out his hand instead.

"Michael Carpenter. I was sent to help. Not as much as I would normally, not directly, unfortunately."

"What do you mean, help? How can you help indirectly? Killing a demon is pretty direct if you ask me."

"I was protecting the innocent," he replied. "That, above all else, is what we all must do. And as for help, I believe that having you go off to find your friend _without_ worrying about your mother will help a great deal. You aren't the first person to rush into battle without a clear head, young lady. Most of them did not make it back in one piece, or at all."

He hadn't raised his voice, but it was hard to miss the slight lecturing tone in his voice. Normally, this would have irked her and probably made her feel as if he was trying to intimidate her. This time, for some reason, she just felt…ashamed. There was something about this man that seemed to seep into her and make her listen. Not in a controlling way -that would have set her teeth on edge. No, this was something else. This was more…a feeling of needing to listen to what he says before reacting. She could have ignored at and simply punched the man, but she didn't want to. And he was right, after all. If she had felt her mother was in danger, she would have rushed out of there and gone in without any plan what-so-ever.

"Who sent you?" she asked, still a little distrustful. He had earned the right to not be beaten around the head for saving her mother, but Buffy was damn sure not to trust anyone at the moment.

"He sent me, and I'm afraid that there isn't much time. I only know what I need to know, what He deems necessary for the moment. But rest assured, Miss Summers, when you return, your friends and family will be safe. I give you my word."

"Your word-"

"Miss Summers," Michael said, cutting her off, "there is much more at stake tonight than you may realize. One of which is Alexander, your friend, running blindly into a situation that only one person here knows anything about."

"What do you know then? Why all the secret, cryptic talk, huh?"

"Not me, Miss Summers," Michael said patiently.

Confused for a moment, Buffy's face dawned with realization. Lindsay. He was who she was going to interrogate, to begin with. But a guy waving a big ol' sword around does tend to distract a bit.

"Giles!" Buffy called out behind her.

Hearing her Watcher run out of the house only to stop in his tracks at the sight of Joyce, Buffy let all of her focus fall on Lindsay.

"Watch her for me," she said, knowing Giles wouldn't let her out of his sight right now.

She wasn't more than a few steps from the ex-lawyer when he started talking.

"He's gone," Lindsey said, coughing violently. "Goddamned kid is going to get himself killed," he said, settling slightly. He breathed heavily, taking in great lungfuls of air as he sat, for the most part, upright.

"Where is he?" Buffy asked, moving towards him. When he didn't answer by the time she got in front of him, she reached down, grabbed him by his shirt, and pulled him off the street.

"My mother was almost taken tonight," she said dangerously. "The people you work for sent things here that went into my home and tried to take her. Now, my friend is gone." She shook him, hard, just to get her point across. "I don't care why you came here, but you better start talking. Now!"

Nodding his head, still slightly weak, Lindsey motioned for her to set him back on the ground. Once he got his feet under him, and he made sure he could support his own weight, he started to tell her what had happened, both inside her house and outside.

"The attack outside was supposed to be it. While everyone was inside the house, the demons were supposed to sneak around back and wait for the vampires to lure any fighters outside. Once that was done, the demons were to go in and grab your mom and take her back to a house near the outskirts of the next town over. Since we took on the whole team at once, they must have had that the other pair of demons as back-up. I didn't know about them, but it makes sense.

"Your mom was supposed to be the bait, the reason why I said you'd people run into this blind. If they had her, then they knew you and Harris would follow, along with everyone else, but Harris is the main focus. The rest of you, well, you're just a happy accident to them."

Buffy listened intently, balling her fist with every word. It only got worse from there.

Xander, once Buffy and Giles had left, had taken it upon himself to get this information as well. He hadn't been content with manhandling Lindsey, unfortunately, the man had lamented. He had melted the ice away from the demon, who had promptly fled after being released, and had bent it around the upper half of Lindsey's body. No matter how Lindsey moved, or how much he thrashed, Xander hadn't removed the water from around his head, cutting off his breathing. When he had finally taken the water away, Lindsey told him what he wanted to know and watched him take off, presumably towards the house. Lindsey hadn't even told him about Joyce before he had left.

"He just took off? You let him go off on his own? I thought you said you wanted to keep this from happening?" Buffy said, starting in on Lindsey.

"I was a little fuzzy on account of _nearly drowning_," Lindsey replied, exasperated. Catching her eye, he said, "I thought you of all people might understand how hard it is to think straight when being drowned."

She refused to show how surprised she was at the expanse of knowledge these people had on her life, on all of their lives if Giles and Wesley were to be believed. Only a few people know about her drowning at the hands of the Master. Somehow, this law firm not only knew about it, but had passed on the information to its employees. It made her wonder how much else they knew or who else out there had information on them.

Ignoring that for the moment, she focused on the problems at hand.

"Giles!" She called out for a second time. She turned back to the porch, seeing Michael nodding gravely at something Giles had said. "I know where they were going to take my mom," she told them. "Xander's already on his way there, but he doesn't know anything it or that she's alright. If he goes in all Avatar like, he'll get himself hurt, or worse, killed.

"There's no time to find Faith," she said thinking out loud, "but we can grab Angel on the way. We're going to need all the muscle we can bring."

"Won't do you any good," Lindsey told her. "The firm already thought about Angel. Don't ask me why, but they didn't want him in this fight. Not enough to kill him outright, but they're keeping him busy all on his own. If we go for him, we'll only waste more time."

"We?" Giles asked, mirroring Buffy's thoughts.

Lindsey gave them a tight, violent grin. "I know the layout of this place, I know their defenses, their back-ups, and what they're capable of. Without me, you'll either get yourselves killed or the kid's mom. Besides, I've got my own scores to settle."

Buffy went to protest, but Lindsey cut her off, saying, "And before you go saying about trust or my leg or some other bullshit like that, I've got two things to tell. One, I could have shot you at any point, since you never even bothered to take my gun from me."

Buffy looked down and, sure enough, Lindsey still had his gun on him and had it pointed at her just to prove his point.

"Second, Faith is at the house, too."

"You captured Faith as well?" Giles asked, the tension evident in his voice.

Snorting, Lindsey shook his head. "Captured? That crazy bitch has been in on this from the beginning."

Buffy, almost too out of shocks for the evening, blinked wide eyed as her brain processed what Lindsey had told her.

"Giles," she said, "Get the car. We're going. Now."

* * *

He should have grabbed his glider. He should have waited for Buffy, waited for Giles, waited for anyone. Most of all, he should know better than to run off in a bout of anger, trying to take care of things on his own. It didn't matter though. While he may have known all of these things, intellectually, he didn't care about any of it. Lindsey showing up had nearly sent him over the edge. If he hadn't had to spend so much time meditating, he wouldn't have been able to keep himself from entering the Avatar State and laying waste to everything in front of him just to put Lindsey down.

He had spent many hours thinking about that night not so long ago at his parents' house, about who was responsible and who to blame. Lindsey McDonald wasn't the one in charge, but he worked for them. He was the one who had led a team of hit men into his home, killed his parents, and tried to drag him off to God knows where. Lindsey wasn't the one calling the shots, though. He worked for them, which in a way made it worse in his mind. Even if Lindsey wasn't the one who decided to come after him, his was the face that Xander saw when he remembered that night, the one that he dreamed of in every nightmare for weeks after and probably for years to come.

Again, he knew it was wrong to give into those types of emotions, but he couldn't help himself. He'd nearly drowned Lindsey, 'til the man had given him the location of where the trap was supposed to go down. At the time he didn't care, but he realized now that he had crossed a line. It was only because he needed to know what Lindsey knew which had stopped him from simply killing the man. There wasn't any time to sit and worry about the implications of what he had almost done, what he had wanted to do. If he survived tonight, he'd think about it then.

Waiting for back-up was the smart thing to do, but no one had ever accused him of being the brains of the group. He wasn't about to let anyone else be hurt because of him. There were only two ways that this was going end. Either he was going to die, or he had to make Wolfram and Hart decide that it was too costly to come after him anymore. If anyone he cared about came with him and got hurt, then it wouldn't be worth being free of the firm.

Still, a car might have been faster than switching between running at slightly faster than normal speeds and riding on an air scooter. He could have made it there faster by going full out, but that prolonged use of bending might tire him out before he got to the house, and he'd need all of his strength for whatever might be waiting for him. Now that he thought about it, he should have probably gotten more from Lindsey than just where the house was. A head count, at the very least.

Riding the air scooter down the main road that connected the two towns, Xander was careful to keep far to the shoulder to avoid being seen as much as possible. Turning off the road, he started down a side street, leaping off the air ball and letting it dissipate. Listening as intently as he could, Xander tried to make out any kind of strange noises, but all he got was the sounds of the night along with the occasional car driving off in the distance. He didn't even know exactly what it was that he was supposed to be listening for, in reality. If anyone knew that he was coming, he doubted that they would be running around, shouting their location or anything. Still, it was probably best to go the rest of the way by foot. There wasn't any reason to make himself more noticeable, if he could help it.

Taking great pains to be quiet, Xander darted towards an outcrop of trees. This far away from the center of town, the houses were separated by a fair amount of land and sparse areas of trees. It wasn't enough to keep him or anyone else hidden from onlookers if enough noise was raised, but it was enough to keep him out of view unless someone was looking for him.

Looking out from behind the trees, crouching down, Xander thought the house was pretty simple. It was a two story home, not unlike Buffy's own, if maybe a little smaller. It was white with a trim of either dark blue or black. In the dark, it was a little hard to tell, and he didn't care all that much about the color pattern to try and make it out. A wooden porch took up the full front of the house. It was strange that it was complete bare of furniture. Most porches would have at least a pair of chairs, maybe a small table, on them for sitting outside on warm days. Evil lawyers and their lackeys probably didn't take the time to enjoy the little things, he guessed.

He waited as long as he could stand before moving closer to the house. As far as he could tell, no one was watching the house from the neighboring homes and there didn't seem to be anyone patrolling the perimeter. It didn't mean that no one was around, but he couldn't waste any more time. The longer he put it off, the greater chance he had of being spotted or of having Buffy catch up to him, which defeated the whole idea of him going in there alone.

He made it all the way to the porch without being spotted, and Xander vaulted over the railing and rolled on the hard wood. Hitting the side of the house, he kept his back to the wall and his body low to the ground. Creeping along, heart pounding in his chest, Xander got under the window and listened. There wasn't much to hear, just some people moving around and a few hushed voices. Taking a chance, he raised his head ever so slightly 'til his right ear was just at the window's level. It didn't make the voices crystal clear, but as he strained his hearing, he was just able to hear the conversation.

"They shouldn't have taken this long. How long does it take to grab one measly woman?" a female voice asked sounding annoyed.

The next voice was male, monotone, almost bored. "They're still in the time frame we planned. The second team called in before moving in. Better they get her in one piece than not at all. The first team won't be of much use in getting them here, now that they're dead."

"Don't remind me," the woman snapped. "What's the point of hiring people in this backwater town if they can't even do the job right? This is exactly why I hate using the local talent."

"If we had outsourced, we would have had a problem with the locals," the man explained. "Better to use what we have and over plan than to deal with our assignment and an enraged populace."

For a moment, no one said anything and Xander feared that he had been found out. He only let out a breath once the woman started talking again, though his heart was going into over drive at this point.

"We have three minutes before the cavalry arrives. Is our guest secure downstairs? Is everyone in position?"

"Everyone is exactly where they're supposed to be. We're waiting on your word," the man said.

There was a definite sound of amusement in the woman's voice this time, and it sent a chill down Xander's spine.

"Alright, boys and girls, let's get this over with. Gavin, see Mr. Harris in."

Xander had a split second to tense his body, trying to ready himself to get away before two arms smashed through the side of the house, grabbing him and pulling him through the, now badly damaged, wall. Dust, wood, and glass fell around him as he laid on the floor, or rather the now destroyed wall. His back and side hurt, but not as bad as they could have. Of course, that was also before he was suddenly lifted off the ground by the scruff of his neck and tossed bodily against the far wall. The small ach in his back flared, pain radiating all over his body. He heard a crack when he connected, but he couldn't tell if it was him or the wall that had made the noise.

For tactical reasons, Xander let himself lay on the floor. Nothing would lure these people into a false sense of security like a moaning, half coherent man on the floor pretending that he didn't have enough strength to get up yet. Since he felt that way in reality, Xander was pretty sure he could make it believable.

"Really? Was that necessary?" the woman asked.

"I didn't think it could hurt," the man told her, still emotionless.

"He better not be unconscious. We don't have the time to waste on waking him up."

"Don't worry, he's awake. I can make him scream if you'd like proof."

Xander snapped his eyes open, making sure not to make any sudden moves. He was in enough pain without someone aiming to hurt him even more. He needed to take his time and get some feeling back into his limbs. Well, feelings that didn't have to do with pain. At least with his eyes open, he was able to get a look at who was talking and what he was up against. It kind of surprised him how few people were actually there.

A very attractive woman in what looked like an expensive dark grey skirt suit was looking at a very nondescript guy with a strained smile. The man, was almost so average it was unnatural. If he had stood still, Xander would have almost mistaken him for a background prop.

Four vampires, all in dark suits like the ones from earlier, stood near the windows, two looking out while the other two kept an eye on him. They were a tad larger than the usual vamps that he had seen and had the look of professionals. He'd never heard of professional vampire bodyguards before. Lackeys, sure, but not any that actually went out of their way to market themselves as such. Then again, an evil law firm probably had demonic secretaries and hatchet men with real hatchets.

He couldn't see anyone else, but there was still the second floor. They could easily be hiding people and not-people up there with ease. But he didn't need to worry about that, not at the moment, anyway. All he needed to do was take care of getting out of there and that meant dealing with the people in front of him. After that, he'd worry about whoever else was in the house and then tear it down, piece by piece if he had to with his bare hands.

"No, Gavin. That'll be all for now," she told the almost boring looking man.

Gavin, as the woman had been called him, let his eyes linger on Xander's own for longer than he was comfortable with. Finally, the man shrugged, subtly, and moved back allowing the woman to take two steps forward.

"Hello there, Alex," she said, her voice carrying with it a false sweetness to it, perfectly conveying that she not just thought, but _knew _that she was in control of the situation. "My name is Lilah Morgan, I'm with Wolfram and Hart." She paused, smirking, before continuing. "I have to admit, I'm a bit surprised. I didn't think that you would come out here on your own. It's reckless, stupid, and almost borderline suicidal when you think about it. Yet, here you are." Her smirk became a genuine, if a little more sadistic, smile. "If I thought God gave a damn about me, I'd say it was a miracle. We were all planned to have to go out there and separate you from the group. This kind of makes the whole kidnapping thing moot, huh?"

"Kidnapping?" Xander asked, holding back the wince from the feeling in his chest. His ribs didn't feel bruised, but there was tightness there from when he had hit the wall…or maybe when he had been pulled _through_ the wall.

Lilah looked slightly surprised by his question. "You mean you came here, all on your own, and you didn't even know who we had here?" Blinking, her grin fell a little. "A little over planning never hurt, but hell. This whole thing could have been avoided by waving a big banner saying _'Here we are!'_?"

"What can I say?" Xander replied, furiously thinking about who it was that they could have taken. "Lindsey was a convincing set-up."

"Lindsey?" she asked, this time genuinely shocked. "_Lindsey_ was there?" She turned to Gavin, asking, "Did you know about this?"

"It was of little concern," he answered, peering out of the window next to one of the vampires. "All that mattered was getting the Avatar here, now. How that was accomplished isn't of any importance."

"Not important?" Lilah said raising her voice. "That little shit switched sides and you don't think it's important?"

"Not at the moment, no." Gavin turned back around. "They're here. The Slayer, one of the Watchers, and Lindsey."

Xander heard car doors open and shut outside and quickly started marking people off the mental list of who could have been taken. There weren't a great many people who would matter to them that kidnapping them would lead to a reckless run at the house.

"Keep them busy," Lilah said. "No one gets in, understood?"

All four of the vampires rushed outside and in a matter of seconds, the sounds of fighting could be heard. Flesh hitting flesh, grunts and growls of pain and rage. All of it fast, all of it violent.

"Gavin, I want you out there as well."

Again, the man's eyes bore into Xander's skull. "It would be more prudent if I were to stay here, with him. If he tries anything, you'd be powerless to stop him."

"I think I have someone better suited for the job," Lilah told him, making clear that he was being dismissed. Gavin, however stayed where he was, staring. "Now, Gavin. Do what we're paying you for and get outside."

With one final bored, not-quite-a-glare glare, Gavin nodded his head and headed outside. As the door opened, the sound of two vampires being dusted could be heard. He heard Buffy's voice outside, angry and without a hint of her usual flair when fighting. He couldn't make out her words, but he doubted that they were nice. The walls shook as something hit the side of the house.

"Well, it sounds like we have a few minutes to ourselves," Lilah said smirking. It was hard to miss that she definitely had an allure to her. A sexy, evil, eat your heart allure, but an allure none the less. "Now, before you start getting any ideas, I think we're going to need a chaperon."

Boots hitting wooden stairs echoed through the house as the fighting got further from the house. The footsteps got louder as the hit the floor and started to get closer. Both palms flat against the floor, Xander twisted his body just enough to see someone coming into view. All he needed to see was their boots to know who it was. He'd seen them coming for his face and stomach often enough during sparring sessions.

"Faith!" Xander exclaimed feeling relieved for the back-up, despite not wanting the other involved.

Lilah, however, looked far too calm for his liking.

"Oh no, a Slayer. Here? Now? Whatever shall I..." she leaned her head back, chuckling. "Oh, God! I can't. Really, I can't." Shaking her head, regaining her composure, Lilah turned to Faith. "Is our guest secure?"

"Yeah, she's good. Don't really know why we needed her," Faith replied.

"You don't need to," Lilah told her.

"Faith?" Xander asked, his stomach knotting up. "Faith, what the hell's going on? Grab her!"

Both women ignored him.

"Gavin's outside dealing with the riff-raff, which just so happens to include Lindsey. You know what that means don't you?"

Faith head jerked up, locking eyes with Lilah, but didn't say anything. From the moment she had walked into the room, she hadn't looked at either Xander or Lilah. She had all but rubbed her foot behind her leg in awkwardness. Xander had spent enough time with her to recognize the signs. The stiffness in her limbs, the fact that she refused to look at anyone and, instead, focused on all of the possible exits in the room. It all but screamed that Faith was uncomfortable.

What Xander couldn't understand, what he was only beginning to have an idea about, was what she was doing here in the first place. What worried him even more was how in control of Faith this woman, Lilah Morgan, was. Faith was hardly one to be quiet around anyone, especially someone giving her orders. Lilah wasn't just giving Faith an order, but an order to do something that she obviously didn't want to do. Instead of arguing, threatening, posturing, or flat out attacking the other woman, Faith had stood there wide eyed and still.

"Faith, snap out of it," Xander tried desperately. He didn't know what the deal was, what exactly Faith was up to, but he had to at least try. He was almost in position, but would rather not hurt his friend.

"Faith, whatever's going on, whatever she wants you to do, you don't have to do it," he told her.

Xander almost let out a breath of relief when he noticed, for a split second, Faith tick her glance his way. It was obvious, at least at this point, that she was working with Lilah, but Xander couldn't believe that it was by choice. Her little look to him gave him hope that, if he could push these people back, he'd be able to get Faith away and find out what was going on.

Lilah, unsurprisingly, completely ignored him still. Taking a simple yet insanely sharp looking knife out of her purse, she handed it to Faith, saying, "Kill her. Make it quick, clean, and do the same to anyone that gets in your way."

Slowly, but without hesitation, Faith reached up and took the knife from her. She didn't hurry, but she didn't stop, either. If Xander waited any longer, Faith might actually go through with it. It wasn't as if he didn't think Faith could actually kill someone, he just didn't think she would do it if she had another choice. All he needed to do was show her that she had another option, that she wasn't alone in this. No matter what they might think they have over her head, that they, that _he_ wouldn't let anything happen to her.

As Faith walked back the way she came, the front door burst open revealing Buffy. Dirty, a few scraps and a cuts on her arms and breathing heavily, but with raw determination in her eyes. She didn't even bother taking in everyone else in the room, choosing to lock eyes with Xander.

"Xander! My mom-" she yelled to him. She never got to say anything else. Gavin appeared behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and, with casual strength, threw her away from the door, cutting her off.

If that wasn't a cue to move, Xander didn't know what was.

He recalled a Firebending move from Aang's own training. It was a simple, but effective defensive maneuver use to push an opponent back and give you time to get back on the offensive. Xander had always wondered why, as an Avatar, or any bender for that matter, other bending styles weren't incorporated into other styles. He hadn't tried them on his own since he was still concentrating on the basics, but he and Aang had talked about a few times and it was worth considering. The time for consideration was over now, though, and he needed to pull out something they wouldn't expect.

Lifting himself off the floor on his palms, Xander swung himself in a circle as if he was trying to sweep someone off their feet. Normally, this would be where a ring of fire would be created, expanding outwards till it was blocked by someone. Despite how much help it would be, Xander hadn't been able to make a spark much less flame when he had tried to Firebend a few times. Instead, he used the motion of his legs to draw as much air to them as possible in as short a time as possible. When his legs completed the circle and he pushed the air out in front of him, he had expected Lilah and Faith to be knocked backwards, maybe with enough force to knock at least Lilah out. What he got instead, completely shocked him.

The wind roared as it was released, rushing out with far more force than he had anticipated. Lilah and Faith were definitely knocked backwards, though being lifted clear off the floor wasn't in the plan. If they hit the wall at the speed they were going, Lilah would certainly be dead and Faith, well, he couldn't be quite as sure about her. Luckily, or unluckily depending on how he chose to look at it, he didn't need to worry about them hitting the wall. The wind hit the wall and, with a snap, crackle, and pop, blew it out of its frame. The windows, front door, and the hole he had been grabbed through probably helped to weaken it some, but he still hadn't expected that.

Both women went through the falling wall, tumbling along on the dirt and debris. For a moment, everything was deathly quiet. Xander, mouth hanging open, couldn't help but stare at what he had done, barely able to comprehend that he had done that much damage. His emotions had clearly gotten the best of him, but still!

Everyone outside, likewise, had stopped what they had been doing. Giles, stake poised above the heart of a vampire Lindsey was holding. Buffy's fist was halfway to Gavin's face as another vampire laid next to them, struggling to get to his feet. All of them froze, looking back at him with the same kind of expression. Namely, what the hell just happened and what did you just do?

Snapping out of it, Xander jumped to his feet and started for the way Faith had come. His movement must have brought everyone out of their own stupor since he could hear the fight resume once again. He wanted to get out there and help his friends, but Buffy had tried to warn him about her mom for some reason. He assumed that they had taken Joyce at some point, then. He could only guess that's who Faith had been seeing to in the basement and, for some unthinkable reason, Lilah had sent her to take care of, which meant only one thing as far as he knew.

Throwing the doors open at random, it took him two empty closets and a crawl space before he found the one leading to basement. Taking the stairs two at a time, he tripped on the last step and slammed into the wall, recovering before falling to the ground.

He stood still for a second, letting his eyes adjust to the dark. He'd heard Buffy and Giles talk about how it was important to not look at any source of light in order to keep the eyes adjusted, but he didn't have time to go back upstairs and shut the door. If he did, Xander was pretty sure that it would be too late to get Joyce out of here and have everyone else free from being too injured or killed. As it was, Buffy had looking a bit worse for wear. But it was Buffy. He had no reason to believe that she wouldn't make it out of this alive and damn it, he'd make sure that when she did, she'd have a mother to go home to.

The basement was bare except for a small desk and a bed. It took his eyes a moment to notice that there was someone sitting on the bed, back to the wall and wrist shackled above her head. Her clothing was dirty and her head was covered with a burlap sack making it hard for his eyes to make them out in the dark. He could only assume that it was Joyce, but hesitated before running over. It wouldn't be that crazy of them to pull a fake out and have another person out to get him there. It was convoluted and crazy, but he didn't put anything past these people.

"Joyce?" Xander asked tentatively. When he didn't get a response or any movement, he started to panic.

"Ah, screw it," he whispered and started for Joyce. If it was her, he couldn't afford to wait.

Pain exploded in front of his eyes, barely seeing the boot coming at him. It was followed up with the world going end over end for a moment before he was staring at the ceiling. Pushing past the hurt, Xander got to his feet and faced Faith. She was standing between him and the bed and was ready to fight. If it wasn't for the hesitation in her eyes, Xander would have thought that she was serious. As it was, he didn't believe that she wanted to do what she was doing right now. If he wasn't careful about it, she'd still do it though. At least with Lilah busy or possible dead, he could try and talk some sense into her.

"Faith," he started, making sure to keep his voice calm and non-confrontational, "I don't know what's going on, and I don't care. But we need to get out of here."

She tensed, but didn't move from her spot. "Just…just go, get out of here."

"That's what I'm saying. Let's grab Joyce, get Buffy and everyone else, and we'll all get out of here."

"That's not what I meant," she told him, her voice getting colder. "Just you, only you. Run, right now. Run as far and as fast as you can, Xander. These people are serious. You can't win."

Xander shook his head. "Can't do that, you know that. I don't know why you're doing this, but we can help. _I_ can help."

"No, you can't," she said softly, far softer than Xander had thought possible with her. Her look shifted suddenly and her face became hard. "I mean it. Get the hell out of here."

"I'm not going to let you do this, Faith!"

"You think you can stop me?"

"This is crazy!" Xander cried out. "What the hell! Why are you working with them? Do you remember what these people have done to me?"

Again, she hesitated for a fraction of a second. An internal battle playing out inside her mind in that short amount of time. Xander had no idea what she was debating, what arguments were being tossed back and forth. He wish he had some clue, something he could use to get past her defenses and reach her, but he barely understood what was happening in the here and now, let alone what had happened to Faith to bring her to this point. Faith, it seemed, agreed with him on that point.

"You wouldn't understand," she muttered. "I thought you might, that maybe we were cut from the same cloth, but we ain't. And ya know what? I don't owe you a _fucking_ thing. Now, either get the fuck out of here or I'll kill ya myself." She turned away, stalking towards Joyce.

Reaching out, Xander made to grab her shoulder to stop her. He expected her reaction and was prepared for her twisting at the waist, throwing an elbow at his solar plexus. He was able to block it, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt or drive him back. Slayers were still stronger than he was, and an enraged one even more so. The vicious strike he expected, the knife flying out of her hand towards him? Not so much.

Throwing up an air shield on pure instinct, Xander managed to deflect the knife and embedding it in the ceiling. He wanted to ask her what the hell she was thinking, but he never got the chance. Faith launched herself at him with a throaty yell, wrapping her legs around his waist, driving him to the ground. She rained blows down on him, but was sloppy as she let the rage take over. Most of her hits were glancing blows about his shoulders. Bruise inducing strikes every one of them, but no serious damage. Most of her hits went past his head as he moved back and forth, the concrete floor underneath them cracking with each punch.

With a lot of moving about, Xander managed to bring his legs up and hook his feet under her armpits, kicking up and sending out a wave of air with it to carry her off of him. He watched her bounce off the far wall and get back on her feet in the time it took him to stand. She still looked completely lost to the anger, but she didn't try to tackle him again. She focused on taking his head off with various punches and kicks, forcing Xander to dance around her. She was more controlled this time around, but not by much. Talking to her would have been pointless.

Unlike in their sparring sessions, neither of them were going half speed or holding back. Faith seriously seemed to want to put him down, hard. The Slayer struck out with moves she had never used on him before and a few he had rarely seen. It was just as well since Xander had kept a few moves of his own.

The fight was short, like most real fights in closed quarters are. If Xander had thought about it, he shouldn't have kept moving, hoping to tire her out. It was a stupid idea when he thought about. Faith was a Slayer and had energy to spare. Not just that, but she fought like a caged animal and was damn agile. He hadn't planned for her to hop off the wall, using the momentum to hit him with an overhand punch. But, she hadn't been expecting him to hook her arm with his own, drop to the floor and roll her away. Both of them came up, breathing heavy and determined. Xander was trying desperately not to hurt her, but she wasn't leaving him much of a choice. Neither was able to make any headway and even the two minutes that had passed were too much. Any minute now, the basement could be flooded with Wolfram and Hart's people and then it would be too late. Hell, it could already be too late for his friends upstairs.

"Faith…don't make me do this," he pleaded with her.

"I won't go back," she said, almost talking to herself. "I won't let you send me back there!"

Xander had hated it, but expected something along that line. When she yelled and came at him again, he already had his hand moving behind him. The air blast he sent out, however, missed when she feinted to the right. It was too late to bring up anything in the way of a defense and he could only watch her move. A crescent kick to the side of his head knocked him to the ground and had him seeing stars. She probably could have taken his head off with such a strike and it was only luck that kept him conscious.

Yes, the good old Harris luck that kept him awake, fully aware of the throbbing pain on the side of his head yet unable to move yet.

Hopping up, Faith pulled the knife out of the ceiling, spinning it once before shaking her head. "I won't go back there. No way in fucking hell. Not for you, not for anyone. You should have walked away, Boytoy. I would have found you when it was over, we could have kept running together. But…now…"

Xander tried to yell at her to stop but his head felt thick in his mouth and the words died in his mouth. Try as he might, his body refused to cooperate with him. All he could do was watch silently as Faith stood over Joyce's hooded, shackled, body, knife raised. The bag moved, bits of black hair now peeking out from under it in the light from the door upstairs. It was almost as if she could sense Faith standing over her.

Wait, what?

His last thoughts were, _'When did Joyce dye her hair?'_

After that, everything went red.

* * *

Buffy grunted as she took another blow from the mystery man. At least, now she knew that he had a limit. When the fight had started, his punches felt like someone was hitting her with a sledgehammer. Now, it was merely a mallet that someone was trying to beat her to death with. She had long ago given up striking back at him directly, since none of her hits had any impact on him. Instead, she latched onto the man's wrist and, using a trick Xander had shown her from his Waterbending, pulled down on his arm before pushing it up, locking both his wrist and shoulder before shoving him backwards. Much to her delight, he grunted in annoyance, or possibly some discomfort even, and stumbled a few steps before coming at her and starting their dance again.

She had spent far too long fighting this guy, but he refused to go down and nothing she threw at him seemed to slow him down much. Hell, she had actually thrown one of the vampires at him hoping to get him to lay off for a few seconds. Instead, he ripped the vamp's head off with his bare hands and didn't so much as blink as he walked through the dust at her. Even Giles' ramming the minivan into him didn't do much except dent the SUV and send him flying. But the second he landed, he was back on his feet, dusting himself off and headed right back towards her. Whoever he was, aside from his clothing being torn up, he didn't show any signs of being hurt. And she wouldn't say it out loud, but his whole calm and neutral mannerism was downright creepy. Not to mention that after those damn bug demons from before, she was a little tired of fighting things that shrugged off her punches like they were nothing.

If he hit her, he didn't show any satisfaction. If she hit him, he never got angry about it. The most she had seen him show in way of emotion was a few grunts here and there and that probably didn't even count as an emotional outburst. It was like fighting a robot, except Ted had actually shown some interest in hurting her. This guy, this ordinary, plain looking guy, was something completely different.

After Xander had brought down the wall, or blew it out, really, Buffy had hoped to put Mr. Robot down fast. She had tried to warn Xander that they didn't have her mother, no doubt they were trying to use that as leverage with him, but hadn't been able to get the whole message out in time. Now he had run off further into the house for some God awful reason. It had taken everything she had, and some help from Giles and Lindsey, to get enough distance to get to the house and tell Xander that much before this guy was on her again. When Buffy had seen Faith jump up and run after Xander, she had redoubled her efforts, but was rewarded with him doing the same. It was only recently that he started to wind down.

Catching him with a low kick to the knee, working his joints, Buffy followed it up with a chop to the throat and snap kick to the groin, forcing him back again. "Is it a eunuch deal or what? That's the third kick to the crotch I got you with and you haven't gone up even half an octave. Come on, just between us girls," she taunted with a blood stained grin, hoping to knock him off his game, somehow. Watching him raise an eyebrow, Buffy thought she might have actually managed it.

His arm snaked out faster than she had thought he could move. She hadn't even thought he had been close enough to reach her, but his hand was now closed around her throat, cutting off her air. Hitting every joint she could think of in his arm, Buffy struggled to get him to let go. Nothing she did managed to budge his fingers or move his arm and her vision was starting to swim.

Rising to his feet, the stranger, with an almost bored expression, picked her up by her neck, dangling her feet a good foot off the ground.

"It's almost sad how much effort you're putting into this. I admire that you're still standing, as much as I can for your kind, but it's pointless." He shrugged, tightened his grip for a moment, before throwing Buffy into the side of the SUV, rocking it in place.

She was slightly weak from the lack of breathing and was trying to get up as she watched him walk towards her, unhurriedly. Standing wasn't an option, it seemed. All of the aches and pains from early in the night and from fighting him started to make themselves known, sapping her strength. She hoped that Giles or even Lindsey might have recovered enough from their own brief encounters with the bored man to come to her aid, but she didn't like the odds. Both of them had been hit pretty hard and she wasn't even sure where Lindsey had landed when he was tossed.

"Still," he said, standing over her, "If you really wanted to do this in earnest, you could have just asked. It would have been far less painful for you."

"Gavin!" A weak female voice called out suddenly.

Both Buffy and Gavin looked over. The other woman to be blown out of the house along with Faith was on her feet. One of her arms hung limply at her side while the other clutched at the bad shoulder. She must have cut her head on something, because blood was running down the left side of her face making her look all that much woozier. Despite that, a little dust and tears in her skirt suit, she didn't look any more worse for wear.

"It's time to leave," she told him, her voice slurring slightly. Turning on the spot, she climbed over the wreckage with as much dignity as possible and started to walk away from the house.

Gavin, looking back at Buffy, gave her a slight shrug. "Another time, perhaps." With that, he walked away without any other sign that they had been fighting. The bastard wasn't even limping even a little.

It took her a few seconds to get her head together, each of them feeling like hours. Finally, she got up and started as fast as she could for the ruined house. If she was lucky, Xander would have been able to hold off Faith before she could do anything. Lindsey had filled them in on what had happened with her sister Slayer and how she had gotten tangled up in all of this. If it hadn't been for the fact that it was so monumentally messed up, she might have felt sorry for the younger girl. Instead, she just wanted to put her down before anyone got hurt.

She heard it before she felt it. It sounded like a giant lion waking up, the rumbling a physical presence in the area. The ground vibrated, rattling her teeth as she froze, wondering just what the hell was happening now. The sound and vibration was followed by an explosion from the basement of the house sending burning wood and other various fiery things flying through the air and taking out even more of the house down. The shockwave produced wasn't enough to knock Buffy from her feet, but combined with her weariness and the sudden heat, it brought her to her knees.

Shielding her eyes from the sudden blaze, Buffy could only look on as, in seconds the whole thing was engulfed in flames. Could there have been a bomb? Was it intentional or something that had happened during the fight inside? Was there a gas leak from the wall being torn down? Did anyone make it out? Was Xander in there? Was this…because of Xander? He had always said that the Avatar could control fire, so was this somehow because of him?

She wanted to run inside, to see if she could find anyone regardless of her own safety. If she could get her legs to move, she would have done just that. Unfortunately, her body felt like one giant bruise and likely resembled one as well. She'd taken more hits then she'd avoided tonight and it was all catching up with her. All she could do was watch what was likely her friend's funeral pyre.

As the dam of emotions started to break, something caught her eye. In the fire, something was moving. The flames parted, and she could definitely make out a figure.

No, wait, two figures.

One of them was carrying the other over their shoulder. Could it be? Could Xander have gained control over fire and was able to get Faith out safely?

Digging into what was surely the last bit of strength she had, Buffy pushed herself up. The figure got closer and the fire continued to move away. As both got nearer to each other, Buffy noticed something strange. Whoever was carrying the other person was too thin to be Xander. They were short enough to be Faith, but the build was all wrong.

The flames in front of the figure suddenly extinguished themselves and Buffy was able to see them clearly. It definitely wasn't Xander or Faith. It was someone completely unknown to her and it immediately put her on the defensive, even though she carried Xander over her shoulder with some difficulty.

She was short, maybe only an inch or two taller than herself. Her clothes were dirty and worn. There was no way that she had worn anything else for at least two weeks with how badly they hung on her thin frame. And she was thin, Buffy noted. Not starved, but underfed for sure. Despite that, what little meat she had on her body was toned, which helped explain how she was even able to pick up Xander, let alone carry him out of a burning building.

Her hair, like her clothing, was dirty and knotted. If she had seen a shower anytime in the past couple of weeks, the black would have stood out against her pale skin. Instead, it only looked brittle and tangled, parts of it matted to her smudged face from sweat.

What didn't look worn out or tired, however, were her eyes. Buffy couldn't help but notice the fierce look in them. The flames danced in them, they lived in them, they _were_ her eyes. The stranger kept her intense eyes on Buffy with each step she took, making it hard not to notice, once she got close enough, that her eyes were actually a amber-gold color. Something in her mind started shouting out the importance of this, but she couldn't focus on that at the moment.

Once past the porch, the girl knelt down and dropped Xander to the floor without ceremony, stood up and took a fighting stance on shaky legs.

When she spoke, it was a short string of words Buffy had never heard before. It sounded vaguely like some of the languages she had heard Xander slip into, but there was no way to be sure. Buffy didn't move, and the girl repeated herself, harsher this time.

Hands up, hoping to avoid a fight, at least until she knew who the hell this woman was, Buffy took a tentative step towards Xander. "I'm his friend. I just need to see if he's hurt," she said slowly. She didn't think the girl would understand her, but it was worth a shot.

Moving closer, the girl tensed, shouted at her in her language again, and stood her ground.

Buffy didn't know what she was supposed to do in this situation and with both Giles and Lindsey out of the picture for the time being, she wasn't going to be getting any back-up. If she had to fight this girl, she would. But she had saved Xander's life and Buffy would prefer not to, not to mention how weak she felt. Besides, with her luck, the other girl would have some kind of freaky bending power or be super strong like the other guy, or just shoot lasers out of her eyes and kill her instantly with the way her night was going.

But, she needed to check on Xander and make sure he was OK.

Again, Buffy moved closer and again, the girl shouted at her.

Just when the second unknown assailant looked ready to fight, Xander stood up.

"Azula," he said loudly, coldly.

The girl stopped staring down Buffy, the tension easily seen to leave her body. She looked behind her, to Xander, turning to see him more clearly. Buffy watched as she turned perfectly into Xander's oncoming fist, flooring the thin girl. Azula, as Xander called her, went down. She didn't get back up.


	20. Chapter 20

_**A/N: **_Thanks to Greywizard for the beta, as always. Without the help I doubt that any reviews would be about anything except "Your grammar sucks." That ebing said, the reviews are always nice to see and have sped my writting. The next two chapters are done (Yes, going on longer than I thought) and just need to go over them a few times. Hope you guys enjoy this, and if not...well, you can tell me that too. Oh, and a quick recommendation. "School Spirit" by Storyenvy is a great Harry Potter crossover with the Dresden Files, so go and give it a read and some love. I wish it would updat more often (Yes, pot calling kettle, but still).

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Avatar: The Last Airbender, or The Dresden Files. They belong to way more talented people and if I did own them, I'd probably be to busy to write fanfiction...which, I am still too busy to do, but still.

Chapter 20 

It took some time and some maneuvering, but between Xander and Buffy, they had loaded Giles, Azula, and even Lindsey into the SUV. None of the three were conscious, but in two of those cases, it was probably a good thing. Xander insisted on riding in the back with Azula and watching her in case she woke up. There was nothing to tie her up with, much to his dismay, so he settled on wrapping the seatbelt around her wrists. Buffy had thought it was a bit overkill considering the girl had not only saved his life, but also looked like she couldn't go a round with a three year old let alone the two of them. _'Then again, neither do I,'_ Buffy thought catching her reflection in the side mirror. She didn't argue with him after that.

The SUV took a few tries, but finally the engine turned over and they drove as quickly as they could from the burning house, hoping to make it out of the area before the cops and fire department showed up. Considering how far away they were from the town's center, there was a good chance they'd be able to make it. It seemed like they were fleeing the scene more and more lately.

The car whined as Buffy shifted gears and she wondered idly how angry her mom was going to be when she saw how badly her car was beaten up. Considering everything that had happened tonight, it was almost funny that her thoughts turned to that. Her mother could have easily been inside that house if it hadn't been for that strange man with the sword.

_'Crap. What the hell was I thinking leaving him alone with everyone?'_ She thought suddenly. _'They were all hurt, no one there to defend them or watch their backs. Her mother could still be in danger, along with her friends! What kind of a man just shows up, out of nowhere and does something…like I do. But that's different! It's my calling to be the Slayer, to be the person who lurks in the shadows and makes last minute rescues of strangers. And this guy…damn it! I just left him there!'_

Steeling herself, forcing her various thoughts and worries aside, Buffy focused on driving. She made herself ignore all of the horrible ideas her brain was coming up with, all of the things that could be happening right now, and concentrated on the here and now, not on what could be at home. Sure, her foot may have fell extra hard on the gas at the moment, but that was just a coincidence.

Damn it. What she needed was a distraction, something to make her think about anything else.

"Xander," she said softly, almost afraid to talk too loud with all the silence in the van. "Xander, who is that? You called her Azula, but…"

Buffy trailed off, glancing in the rearview to see his reaction. He hadn't bothered looking at her when she spoke. Instead, he kept his eyes fixed on the unconscious girl next to him. Looking back to the road, Buffy thought about trying to get him to talk again, demanding to know what had happened back there, what had happened to Faith, when he started speaking.

"Her name is Azula," he told her, his voice as quiet as hers was.

For a moment, Buffy thought that might be all he would give her.

"She was in the basement, chained to a wall with her head covered. I don't know why - if they wanted us to think it was your mom or…or what they wanted us to think. Faith…Faith was going to kill her," he told her, almost sounding as if he was trying to wrap his mind around the idea. "Not hurt her, Buffy, kill her. I was on the floor, I wasn't able to move. I didn't even know it was her under the hood, I thought…"

He paused, collecting his thoughts.

"Either way, I couldn't do anything to stop her. But Azula, she must have known." He snorts suddenly at a private joke. "Of course, she must have known. She _always_ knows. Azula was ready for her. Faith didn't stand a chance. When Azula struck, it was…brutal. She let loose as if she had been holding all of her strength inside. At least…at least I think it was quick for her. For Faith."

"She was chained to a wall, couldn't see, and she stopped Faith?" Buffy asked. If she had had the energy, she might have been a bit more disbelieving. At this point, she was only looking to understand.

Buffy paused, glancing in the rearview again when he didn't answer. "I've heard that name before. Azula. You've mentioned it, right? Something to do with the Avatar's world."

"Yeah, she did and I have." Xander leaned back, resting against the door of the SUV. Still, he never took his eyes off of Azula.

"Princess Azula of the Fire Nation. Daughter of Ozi and Ursa, brother of Zuko." Taking a deep breath, he shook his head. "She is one of the most frighteningly powerful, and insane, women that I know about. Scary smart and a Firebending prodigy the likes that I don't think the world has ever seen before or will ever see again. You asked how she was able to go against Faith when she was chained up like that. I wonder what the hell took her so long to make her move."

"She set the fire," Buffy stated, slowing her speed to normal as she reached the highway. There were other people on the road now, not many, but enough that she would be more noticeable if she went too much over the speed limit. Luckily, the car didn't seem to have a lot left in it at this point and started to rattle when she went any faster than sixty.

"When she kicked out with her legs, she let out a intense burst of fire. I don't know what happened after that, not till we were almost out of the house. I must have blacked out or something."

Swallowing hard, Buffy's thought instantly of Faith. More horrible scenarios played through her mind about her friend - enemy, maybe? - being trapped in the house when it had gone up. Despite not having the whole story on her, Buffy and Giles had taken Lindsay at his word about Faith. The things he had told them matched up with what Giles had found out about her upbringing, if you could call it that. The way Wolfram and Hart had played into that weakness, had used the scared and hurt little girl still inside of her that she had walled away was sickening and, at the same time, made a lot of sense. How she had died…it wasn't right. Faith may have betrayed them, but she didn't deserve this, not any of it.

"So, she's the, uh…the crazy girl that was after the Avatar back in that world, then? How'd she end up here? She didn't just fall out of the sky." Buffy thought about that for a moment, furrowing her eyebrows as she recalled bits and pieces of conversations with Xander. "She, uh, didn't, right? I mean, that's not something you bendy people can do, is it?"

Xander shook his head slightly. "No. No, we can't. I have no idea how she got here or why she was in the basement."

"Wolfram and Hart," a voice slurred from the backseat.

Xander, for the first time since getting in the car, looked away from Azula and turned his head to the very back of the car, Buffy doing the same. Lindsey was sitting up, one of his eyes completely swollen shut and his nose, which had looked broken when Buffy had last seen it, was a purple mess on his face. He sounded like he was trying to talk very carefully, as if breathing was painful. It wouldn't surprise her to find out that he had a couple of busted ribs, but there wasn't anything they could have done about it.

A car honking brought Buffy's attention back to the road, just in time to swerve away a car that she had gotten too close to.

"Sorry, sorry!" she exclaimed.

"Watch the damn road!" Lindsey exclaimed, groaning and clutching at his sides at his own outburst. Grabbing onto the headrest of the seat in front of him, he growled out, "Would it have killed you to put me in an actual seat?"

"Maybe," Xander said noncommittally. "Now, what the _hell_ does Wolfram and Hart have to do with _her_ being here?" he demanded, pointing at the dirty young woman for emphasis.

Buffy focused on the road, listening as Lindsey shifted around, probably getting into a better position.

"Did you know about this?" she asked, her voice back to its soft tone and carefully neutral.

"'bout her? Yeah, I knew she was here," he muttered. "I didn't know about the whole thing back there, though. She wasn't supposed to be anywhere near the house tonight."

"Well, she was," Xander said, turning back to Azula.

He must have really been tired if he wasn't going at it with Lindsey, Buffy thought. She wouldn't have blamed him had he yelled at the man, not in the least. Still, to go from nearly killing him less than two hours ago to sitting close to him with barely raising his voice spoke volumes. All of them had lost so much, been through so much tonight and none of them had even begun to deal with that yet.

"Ya, I figured that much out, thanks."

Lindsey, on the other hand, didn't seem too tired to be sarcastic.

"It was a ritual," Lindsey told them. "I wasn't even there for it, but Lilah was."

"Lilah?" Buffy asked.

"The woman in the suit," Xander offered.

"Yeah, that bitch. She make it out?" Lindsey asked with a tinge of hope.

"Her and that Gavin guy, yeah," Buffy told him.

"Damn," he said softly, all hope erased. "Doesn't surprise me."

"The ritual?"

"That fucked up idea, yeah, I remember it. Like I said, I wasn't there, but I found out what it was for. Turns out, if you have enough juice, the right contacts, and the right friend in the right place, you can get just about anyone or anything. Sure, it took four virgin sacrifices and God knows how many hours of chanting, and who knows what else, but ya can't argue with the results," he said motioning to Azula. "When it was all said and done, we had that psycho bitch in a box and ready to go. Not that it did a lick of good."

"What do you mean? She seems, uh…normal?"

Lindsey chuckled lightly, coughing a bit as he did. "Psycho bitch ain't a euphemism, sweetheart. When we got her back to one of the firm's facilities and out of the box, she went crazy. Not just 'Where the hell am I?' crazy, she was certifiably insane crazy. Talking to herself, throwing things around, scratching at her arms till they bled. When she started breathing fire and trying to burn her room, they tranqed her. My boss called the whole thing a wash. I thought they had just killed her. Imagine my surprise when I found out she wasn't only alive, but functional."

"Functional?" Xander asked concerned. "You people made her…functional?"

"I guess," Lindsey said with a shrug. "I never had any face time with her. That was all Lilah. While I was busy with the real grunt work, Lilah had gotten in good with the boss by making little Miss Pyro over there understand what was going on, teaching her English, having a slew of shrinks, both vanilla and demonic, see her. How the hell do you think we knew so much about what you could do? It all came straight from her. From what I hear, she had to be coerced, offered a little incentive, but she gave us what we needed."

"And my mother?" Buffy asked, her teeth set on edge still about that part of the plan.

"She was supposed to be in the basement," Lindsey told her gruffly. "I don't know what this was about. If she was a last minute switch since the second team was stopped, or what."

No one spoke. The silence was thick, pressing in on all sides, threatening to suffocate. Gripping the wheel hard, she could feel it begin to break. Lindsey, while not callous about the fact that her mom could have been in that house when it went up in flames, didn't offer an apology for it. She didn't know if she would had felt happier if he had, or if that would have made her angry for other reasons. Either way, the rage was building inside of her. She felt like tearing the wheel from the steering column and beating him to death with it. She wanted to cry and rage and share the pain she felt inside of her right now 'til she there was nothing left. She was tired, and frustrated and more than a little upset even if her mother was fine. Because that was it. She was fine…this time.

The urge quelled slightly when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Slowly, she turned her head for moment and found Giles, awake and looking at her. The man looked far older then he really was at the moment. His face, one side of it showing a large deep red bruise, was tilted towards her. He didn't need to say anything to let her know what he was thinking. He knew what it felt like to lose someone, to lose several someone's, and had no desire to go through it again.

Giles, someone who had been more like a father to her than her own in recent years, who had only recently gotten past the pain of having his last lover torn from him, violently, had almost had to deal with it all over again. Yet, here he was, offering her silent comfort, letting her know that he was there for her and would continue to be. If he hadn't fallen apart yet, if he hadn't let loose on the man in the backseat, then she could hold off as well.

The silence continued all the way into town. No one followed them, as far as they could tell. Lindsey had been watching out the back window and would have said something if he thought that someone was trailing them. Giles, continued to keep his hand one Buffy's shoulder, giving a gentle squeeze every so often. Whether it was for support or to remind himself that she was still there, that he hadn't lost anyone again, she didn't know. Frankly, she didn't care. The contact was nice and was keeping her grounded.

Xander was the most frightening out of all of them. He stared at Azula, who was still unconscious and bound by the seat belt. From the quick glances she stole in the mirror, Buffy didn't think he was doing it out of hate, but it wasn't concern, either. His gaze was almost completely devoid of emotions and if she had it in her, it would have worried her.

They were only a few blocks away from her house when Buffy spoke again.

"What did she say?"

"Hmm?" Xander replied, clearly not hearing her.

"When the two of you came out of the house, she was pretty adamant about me not getting near you. She kept saying something, but, well…I was just wondering, what it was."

Xander finally turned, looking at Buffy through the mirror. "She said, 'Stay away from him,'."

"That's…strange."

"That's not the strangest thing. When you tried to talk to her, she told you that she won't let anyone hurt me."

"She said you? She knows who you are?"

"Not by name," Xander told her. "She called me the Avatar."

Buffy rolled that around in her head for a bit. This girl, who may or may not be completely crazy and so powerful that Xander was literally not letting her out of his sight, not only knew what he was, but was trying to protect him. There was literally no way to understand what that was all about, or even what their next move was supposed to be. How were they supposed to figure what to do at a time like this, anyway? Was there even a point? Was this how it was going to be now? A series of events that slowly chipped away at everything in their lives till they had nothing left? If that was the case, she didn't think she could take it.

A big battle was one thing. She could handle it if she died fighting something, if she went out one night and didn't come back because of some hellish being. She didn't want that to happen and she'd fight tooth and nail to keep her pulse, but she had come to terms with the kind of end she was likely to have. Namely, violent and sudden. But if somehow her life was going to be taken away from her one bit at a time, if they killed her by inches, she couldn't handle that. She'd break and she knew it.

"Buffy," Giles said softly, squeezing her shoulder. "Stop the car."

Looking around for what he saw, Buffy pressed on the brakes. It wasn't until they were stopped, and Lindsey started protesting about his lack of seating again, that Buffy saw it. There, in her drive way, was the bumper of a car she'd never seen before. She could barely make it out from behind the her neighbors' bushes, but her mom only had the one car and she was driving it. Oz had his van parked down the block and Cordelia had come over with him. That was everyone she knew, so just who in the world was parked in her driveway?

She also noticed the lack of a wrecked car in the middle of the street. Someone had taken the time to get rid of the evidence that there had been a fight in the middle of the quiet residential street. The usual Sunnydale Syndrome would make sure no one noticed anything in the first place, but not having a destroyed car outside would help to make that go all that much smoother.

"Who the bloody hell is that?" Giles said, opening the door and stepping out into the street.

Buffy quickly followed suit, noticing the pained expression on Giles' face. Just for a moment, Buffy saw it as well. It was something large, its skin gleaming slightly under the porch light. She couldn't get a good look at it. As soon as she had noticed it, it had retreated into the shadows. The fight tonight had taken a lot out of everyone. She didn't know how much more they had left in them, but this was the third time tonight someone had shown up at her home unannounced and the first two times it hadn't ended so well.

Michael, the man with the sword, had promised he would take care of everyone. Maybe he meant it, or maybe he meant he'd '_take care_' of them. It was stupid to leave them alone with a stranger, no matter how much trust he seemed to radiate. She'd berate herself later. Right now, she had something to kill.

"Stay here," Buffy said absently.

Her legs felt stiff, but the bruises were already healing. By tomorrow night, they would most likely feel like little kinks that needed to be worked out. At the moment, however, she felt like she'd have a hard time kicking over a trashcan, let alone kicking someone in the face.

Noticing movement to her left, Buffy glanced over and found Giles exiting the car fully. Apparently 'stay here' didn't translate so well into British. Exchanging a look with him, Buffy took the lead and started around the truck. Better to go with the flow of it rather than waste time and give away their position with arguing. She had managed to make to her driveway and noticed that the mysterious car was actually the one that had been totaled. They hadn't moved it far, but with the wreck out of the street, people would probably ignore it unless they wanted to comment on it being an eyesore. Getting around it would be easy, she just had to make sure she wasn't seen. Although it seemed the sneaking, apparently, wasn't going to do her much good.

"Excuse me, young lady," a deep voice said in front of her. "Is there something I can help you with?"

Blinking with surprise at the man who had snuck up on her, Buffy couldn't think of anything to say except, "Huh?"

"Merciful Father!" Michael exclaimed, his demeanor changing at once. "What happened? Is everyone alright?"

Again, Buffy blinked. There weren't any words. Not for the sight in front of her.

She finally took Michael in and realized something. He was big. Really big. Not that he was extremely tall or anything, but at least six feet and solidly built as well. It wasn't fat either, from what Buffy could tell. It was the build of a man who worked for a living. He was old, too. Well, older than her, anyway, but younger than Giles, his beard made it a bit hard to pinpoint an exact age on him.

He wore simple khaki colored slacks and a white button up shirt underneath honest to goodness armor. It wasn't just for show, either. Buffy saw bits of chain mail peeking out from underneath his plate mail. Over the armor, set with a cross pin, was a white cloak. Whoever Michael was, he hadn't come here to play. One of his large hands rested on the hilt of a sword on a belt on his waist, which, considering the chain mail, didn't look as out of place as it should have. It wasn't a threatening pose, not really. It was more of a statement. One that said, 'Don't cross me and I won't have to do something one of us will regret'.

"Child, can you answer me? Where is everyone else?" Michael asked, taking her by the shoulders firmly, but gently, thinking she was in a state of shock.

"We're all here," Giles said, coming to stand next to Buffy. Adding softly, "Mostly, anyway."

Taking in a deep breath, Michael asked, "Alexander?"

"He's fine," Giles replied. "He's in the van."

"Michael?" He shouted out, clearly confused.

"Alex," the knight called back, sounding much more reassured.

"What the he-" Xander stopped for a split-second, almost as if he was remembering something. "-ck. What the _heck_ is going on? What are you doing here?"

Buffy couldn't help herself and looked behind her. Xander was standing there, staring at Michael. He didn't seem confused as to who he was, but why he was there. He held Azula in his arms, cradling her like a child. With how thin she was, the comparison wasn't that far off. Buffy watched him turn to look at her, then looked back at Michael.

"The Lord works in mysterious ways. Didn't I tell you that?"

"Mysterious I get, but this is just…weird, even for me," Xander replied. For the first time since they had left the burning house, he sounded as if there was some emotion in his voice.

"I take it you know Miss Summers?"

"Yeah, she's my friend, the one you helped me find," Xander said slowly. "Um, not that I'm not happy to see you, but that's a big ol' sword you got there and after the night we've had, it's making me a little wigged and why are you dressed like someone from Monty Python?"

"I thought it best to arm myself as much as possible. I made a promise to the young lady here," he indicated to Buffy, "and I intended to keep it. How many are injured?"

"Pretty much everyone," Xander said nodding his head. Michael's answer seemed to be enough for him.

"I think it would be best if we moved inside then, don't you?"

"Xander, you know this man?" Giles asked, grimacing at moving his head back and forth, watching the two men talk, but trying not to make his pain known.

"Introductions can wait till everyone is inside," Michael told him. "Is there anyone else or just you four?"

"There's one more in the van, but-"

"Hold it!" Buffy shouted, forcing everyone to focus on her. "Xander, who is this guy? No one is going inside _my_ home until I find out what's going on and why this guy is here? I mean, thanks for saving my mom before, but _no one_ is getting invited in 'til I get some answers."

"Not for nothing, but she kind of has a point. It's…been that kind of a night," Xander said slightly sheepishly, shifting Azula in his arms to get a better grip. "And, uh, I don't remember telling you my name."

Instantly, Buffy refocused on Michael, ready tear into him. Blind trust had never been a strong point of hers since becoming the Slayer and tonight, it was nonexistent. To her surprise, Michael simply chuckled slightly, smiling warmly at Xander.

"I often wonder why people can't simply accept that He makes things known to those that listen. I go where I am needed and told what I need to know. Tonight, Alex, I was needed here," Michael told him.

Reaching her last nerve, Buffy snapped. "What the hell does that mean? And don't even start on my language 'cause you haven't heard anything yet!" Stepping closer to him, looking up into his face with a stony glare, she said, "I have _zero_ clue as to who you are and, no offense Xand, but I don't care that you know him. After the night we've had, after what we've lost, what I almost lost, I don't care anymore. Now, either tell me what you're doing in _my_ house, or so help me God, I'll-"

"Buffy!"

Everyone, including Michael, stopped and looked back at the front door. Looking tired and a bit angry stood Joyce. Her arms where wrapped around herself for warmth, but the cold didn't stop her from stepping outside and hurrying down to meet everyone. Once she got within sight of everyone, however, the anger turned to concern.

"Buffy, what happened? Are you alright?" Taking Buffy into a hug, she looked at everyone in turn and quickly switched from concerned to frantic. "Rupert! What in the world happened while you were gone? How badly are you hurt?"

Despite the aches and pains, Giles smiled slightly. "I'm fine, Joyce, really. A few days rest, some sutures, and I'll be perfectly alright."

Without letting go of Buffy, Joyce managed to grab hold of Giles and pulled him in as well.

After the night she had had, after the emotional whirlwind and physical exhaustion and losses, Buffy couldn't help herself. She buried herself deeper into her mother's hug, letting all of the pain seep away from her. The bone deep aches, the turmoil and grief, all of it slipping away. Despite the strange man in armor standing next to them, despite Xander holding a possibly psychopathic girl, none of it mattered. All that mattered was right here, holding on to her.

And God help whoever tried to threaten that again.

* * *

Watching Buffy embrace her mom lifted a weight off of Xander's shoulders he hadn't even known was there. He had been numb to most everything the whole way back, only responding to Buffy's questions to try and keep his own thoughts straight. It had been an effort to get his mouth to work right and his voice to be above that of a whisper. Talking had somehow felt cheap and dirty at first, as if it would somehow make everything they went through tonight seem less than what it was.

Seeing Buffy's mom, here, now, it made things seem brighter than they were. His friend hadn't lost her mother, something he was sure would have devastated her. It was a happy moment, he was sure of that, so why wasn't he happy? Happy for her? Yes, but not happy.

Sure, Xander knew that he was still so tired it was affecting everything he did at this point. He was fairly sure that it was only because he hadn't thought about sitting down yet that he was still on his feet. His brain was so over-loaded that it had stopped processing things long ago. If it hadn't been, he probably would be more concerned with the fact that he was not only holding a psychotic Firebender that would certainly burn the world to cinders who was also supposed to be in another dimension, and dead. But, his brain was also doing a good job of not exploding at the site of a man who he hadn't seen since he had mysteriously showed up in the middle of the desert. Who had also known his name. Oh, and who was also dressed as a freaking knight.

"S-s-s-s-o-o-o-o-o-o-o," Xander said, dragging out the word. "Is this just some kind of freaky coincidence or what?"

Michael gave a slight shake of his head, looking genuinely happy at Buffy and her mother's reunion. He had mentioned that he had kids of his own, maybe he just enjoyed the actual happiness that seemed to be coming from the three of them. Or maybe, depending on his line of work, he hadn't seen it all that often.

"No, not a coincidence," Michael said still watching. "I was sent here."

"Like before? Just another long drive through the desert and you just _happened_ to show up at my friend's house? I get it, I get it, you think God told you to come here, right?"

"I do not think, I know."

Like before, his words were powerful without his voice being raised. Like there was a mountain of conviction behind him that would support him till the end of time. Michael shook his head. "This was specific. He sent me here for this reason, for this exact purpose." He turned to Xander, smiling serenely. "Sorry. My own daughter and wife have only just…" He stopped in mid-sentence, eyes wide, exclaiming, "Father above! Are you alright?"

It took Xander a few seconds to realize why Michael was acting like that at the sight of him. It hadn't occurred to him how he might look to someone else, despite Joyce's own reaction. Now that he thought about it, Xander was amazed that Michael hadn't noticed it earlier. Here he was, standing in the middle of the street with streetlights shining down on him, clothing singed, torn, dirty, and bloody. His skin wasn't much better. Not to mention the too light girl he held in his arms that looked worse than he did.

Words, right. He should say something.

"What?" Xander stopped at that, too busy applauding himself on his quick timing and rapier sharp wit to say anything else.

"Here, give me the girl," Michael said, stepping forward with his arms out. "You can barely stand on your own feet, let alone carry someone else."

Instinctively, Xander moved Azula closer to his chest despite his arms and shoulders screaming at him to put the girl down.

"No," Xander said at Michael's look. "I can't."

"I won't hurt her," Michael said, reassuringly, but stayed where he was.

"I'm not afraid of that." Xander looked down at Azula, her face calm, almost restful. He knew better though. "I can't trust her."

"A girl like that? Surely she can't be possible of hurting anyone, not in that condition at least."

Images of Faith flashed through his mind's eye. Her laughing, teasing, fighting. Of those few moments when she let her vulnerability through only to cover it up as quickly as it had appeared. Then, he saw her last seconds on this Earth and the blood chilling scream that lasted a fraction of a second and for eternity in his memory.

His grip tightened to the point that he thought he might leave bruises on Azula's body. "Trust me. She's no innocent."

"All the more reason to show compassion," Michael told him solemnly, but didn't make any move to take her again. "I take it she's from your area of expertise, hmm?"

Looking for a change in topic, Xander asked, "So, about _Him_ sending you here. What did you mean by that?"

Looking thoughtfully at Xander for a moment, Michael nodded his head down the street and started walking, letting both of their questions linger. Confused, Xander quickly followed after him. He caught Lindsey's face in the back window looking angry at having been left and forgotten about for the moment, probably hurting. If he had the energy, Xander would have smiled a bit.

Across the street and a few houses down, Xander found Michael at the trunk of a white four door, putting his amour away as he took it off.

"Are you certain that you wouldn't like me to take her from you?" Michael asked again, though careful not to try and reach for her this time.

"No, it's…I've got her."

The knight frowned, but didn't say anything else on the subject. Instead, he looked around at the area, his frown growing deeper, almost into a scowl. "I never thought I would step one foot into this town again. The evil here…I can feel it spreading outwards, seeping into every home, into every man, woman, and child. If given the chance…" He trailed off, closing his eyes. Taking a deep, calming breath, he opened them again, looking more at peace then before. "But, it's not my place to look for a fight. I do not seek out evil to destroy it."

"Yeah, I can tell," Xander said, eyeing the sword still on Michael's belt.

"Besides," he said, missing the sarcasm in Xander's voice, "this place has its own defender."

Xander nodded. "Yeah, Buffy's pretty good at beating back the monsters."

Looking confused and slightly uneasy, Michael asked, "Buffy? The young…lady. She fights along-side you, am I correct?"

"More like I fight beside her. Used to be, I fought behind her and as far from any sharp, pointy objects as I could get," he joked. Growing serious at Michael's look, he said, "Trust me, Buffy's tougher than she looks. She's kept the world spinning more than a few times."

"And you trust her?"

"Buffy?" Xander asked now the confused one. "Yeah, of course I do. Why?"

Michael frowned, his gaze turning back to the house. "There's something…not right about her. Something evil, unnatural. But…it's not like the evil that I have come across all too often."

"Maybe all the extra evil she fights rubbed off on her? Like…_eau de vampire_ or something like that. Maybe that's what you're feeling?"

"I doubt it," he replied. Pausing again, he shook his head. "But, I have yet to question His judgment."

"Um…are you saying that you were sent here to help Buffy with tonight?"

"No, not for her," Michael said with a small smile. Nodding back towards the house, Xander turned and saw that Buffy, Joyce, And Giles were walking into the house, still very close to one and other. "No, I was sent here for that."

Closing the trunk, Michael walked around to the driver's door. "I wish I could stay longer, but I need to be going. Your friends are fine. Mrs. Summers helped me see to those that I could. One of them, however, needed more serious attention than I could give him, a Mr. Wyndam-Price. He's at Sunnydale General and was in stable condition when the ambulance had taken him."

"Wait, you just show up, save Joyce, do a patch job on my friends, and now you're running off?" Xander asked, some feeling growing up inside of him, which was a change from the numbness he had been feeling. Though anger, resentment, and hurt weren't exactly a better change. "I don't even know who you are!"

"I gave you my card," Michael said simply. "You know my name and that should you need anything, all you need to do is ask. The Lord is not without compassion or in the business of abandoning those that need help. But, I believe he feels that you have everything you need right where you are." Resting his hand on Xander's shoulder, Michael gave it a soft squeeze. "I won't pretend to know what's going on here, and I hope that someday you'll tell me all about it. But He feels that I will be of better use somewhere else."

"He does, huh?" Xander said with a snort. He looked into Michael's eyes and saw something rare. Belief. One hundred percent belief in, well, God. It sent a slight shiver down his spine. Not in a bad way, not at all. In fact, some of the weariness, some of the anger and bad feelings faded away in that moment.

"You really believe that you talk to God, don't you?"

Michael chuckled, giving his shoulder one more squeeze before letting go. "We all speak to the Lord and he is always listening. He just chooses to talk louder to some people."

A little overwhelmed by the pure belief in Michael's eyes and the sheer force behind his words, Xander could only stand and nod his head, promising to call Michael when he got the chance, to let him know how everything turned out. He watched Michael drive away in his car, letting himself float on the feeling of warmth and safety that the other man exuded. It was a full minute before he realized that the body he still held in his arms had tensed slightly.

Looking down, Xander's peace left as quickly as it had come. Azula, now awake, stared back at him. Her dirty, tangled, hair covered part of her equally dirty face making it hard to judge what she might be thinking, not that it would have been easy even had she been freshly clean. Her eyes gave nothing away. The amber orbs looking up at him were as impassive as ever. A ball of pure ice seemed to form in the pit of his stomach as he looked at her. She was waiting, waiting for him to do something, to make the first move.

_"{You're awake,}"_ he said simply, knowing full well that she could feel his heart speeding up.

_"{So it would seem,}"_ she replied casually. _"{You can put me down. As much as I've missed being carried everywhere, this is hardly a dignified way to travel.}"_

_"{I'm not so sure that's a good idea.}"_

_"{I'm hardly in any shape to runway,}"_ she told him with a roll of her eyes.

_"{And I'm supposed to believe that?}"_

_"{Fine, if you insist on carrying me, at least lift me up a bit. My back is beginning to ache.}"_

With a wary gaze, Xander debated if she was telling the truth. When he realized that he wouldn't be able to tell that, no matter how long he watched her. and he doubted anyone would be able to, really, he settled on figuring out what would be the best choice for him. In the end, he started to lower her to the ground, making sure she was steady on her feet before taking a few steps back, arms loose and body ready to move. If she was in front of him, he would at least stand some chance at defending himself and the others. Keeping her in his arms was a disadvantage and, frankly, now that he was thinking about, made him want to scrub that layer of skin off.

She eyed his stance, smirking lightly. _"{If I had wanted to attack you, do you think I would have pulled you from the building?}"_

_"{No,}"_ Xander said, anger slowly building inside of him despite the emotional and physical weariness he felt. _"{You would have killed me like you did my _friend_.}"_

_"{Your friend with the dagger? The one who was trying to kill you and, more importantly, me? My, my, Avatar. It seems we have similar taste in friends.}"_

_"{You know nothing about her!"_

_"I know more than you do,}" _she told him, her voice almost sing-song_. "{I know why she was there in fact.}" _She lifted her hand and examined her dirty, chipped, and broken nails. Even covered in filth and as weak as a kitten, she still carried herself with the air of royalty and with the presence of someone who knew exactly what she was doing. The worst part was, it was working.

_"{What do you know?}" _Xander demanded barely resisting the urge to grab the girl and shake her.

Looking up from her nails, Azula didn't smile. She didn't laugh, smirk, purr, or make any connotation towards being happy. Yet it was hard to miss the feeling of delight she seemed to exude. She had him and she knew it.

_"{I'm supposed to tell you? Without any assurance of my safety or wellbeing after you have everything you want to know?}"_

_"{And I'm supposed to trust what you tell me? Should I laugh now or wait till after you plunge the knife in my back?}"_

_"{Have I given you any reason to distrust me?}"_

_"{With you? I'm pretty sure breathing counts,}" _he said. His eyes went hard as he clenched his fist to keep himself under control. _"{You killed someone close to me, someone important. You're lucky I haven't flattened you.}"_

Azula meets his gaze before flicking her eyes past his shoulder. _"{You would fight me here, now? I can barely stand.}" _She smirks at him. _"{Agni, you are nothing like the little monk.}"_

_"{And you're everything I've heard about.}"_

_"{So it's true,}" _she said, still smirking_. "{You do talk with the monk.}"_

_"{What do you mean? Who said that?}"_

_"{I told you, Avatar, I know a great many things that you would find…interesting. It would be wise to listen to me.}"_

Again, he had to make a decision. Standing in front of him was the girl - no, the woman - who had killed Faith, and it made him want to end her in violent ways that he never would have imagined possible before now. This was a woman who had committed horrible acts of violence back in her own world, who had sought to bring nations to their knees and annihilate anyone who dared stand in her way. She was, in a lot of ways, worse than some of the monsters that he and his friends faced. Vampires, while they were evil, murderous, and tortuous beings, - in the end, despite how some of them acted, most of them killed for food. Azula did it for power, or maybe enjoyment. Probably both.

But she knew something. She knew several something's if she was to be believed. It was very possible that she was lying to save herself, or more likely to further some as yet unnamed goal, but Xander didn't think so. Not that she wasn't working an angle, she always had a reason for doing something. But what he knew about the girl was that she liked to use the truth more than a lie. The truth always worked better. The trick was finding out how she was twisting the truth.

Still, he had the overwhelming urge to drown her. To freeze the air around her lungs and watch her choke. To slash her to ribbons and let her bleed out. To call up gale force winds and watch her fly through the air, hitting every wall, tree, and car in her way. All of these thoughts were violent and went against the kind of Avatar he wanted to be, but at the moment, he simply didn't care. He desperately wanted to give in to these darker urges.

"{_If you don't believe me, then believe this.}" _Azula dropped the smirk and, with every ounce of conviction, as much as Michael had with his words of faith, said, _"{I want the people that did this to me burned to ashes. Those that brought me to this…this _world_ will roast slowly for what they've done, one way or another. If not with your help, then without it.}"_

"{_What is it you want?}" _Xander asked, some of the weariness coming back to him.

"{_For now? A truce.}" _With a show of great sacrifice on her part, Azula relaxed her arms and bowed her head, her eyes staring at the floor. _"{From this moment till you have heard what I've said. Agreed?}"_

Mentally cursing for being backed into this, Xander ground his teeth. There was no way he'd be able to beat the information out of Azula. Not in a she'd-burn-the-neighborhood-down-when-she-escaped way, he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Something in her voice, in her body language, said that she really wanted to get back at Wolfram and Hart. He didn't know why, and wouldn't until she told him. But, in order for her to do that, he was going to have to make a truce with her, something he wasn't at all happy about.

"{_If you don't have anything useful or I find out your lying, I don't care what you try to do, it won't be enough to keep me from killing you. This in no way makes anything between us OK. You destroyed the life of…of someone I cared about. That score _will_ be settled,}" _he said harshly, his throat closing and making the words painful to say. With more than a little reluctance, Xander held out his hand.

Azula looked at it for a moment, raising her eyebrow. _"{I said a truce, nothing more. I'm not holding your hand, Avatar.}"_

"{_What? I wasn't-no!}"_ Dropping his hand, he said, _"{It's how we say that we accept. That….that I accept the truce.}"_

Holding both hands out in front of her, Azula mad a fist, holding it flat against her palm. Mimicking her, Xander did the same. Neither took their eyes off the other this time, and they only bowed slightly, but when they rose, they didn't attack. There was no small amount of mistrust and anger present, but neither of them made a move to break the peace right away. That alone was a small tick in the win column for tonight in Xander's book. It just was far from enough, though.

"Xander?" Giles called behind him. "Is everything alright?"

"Everything's…it's alright," Xander called out behind him, still not taking his eyes away from Azula.

"{_Are we going to go inside or stand out here all night till the sun rises? I'm sure that the peasants here will find it quite the sight,}"_ Azula said sarcastically.

"{_I'm trying to figure out how to explain this all to them,}" _Xander snapped. _"{How to…how to explain what happened and who you are.}"_

Smirking, Azula said, _"{Is that all? That will be a simple task.}"_

She started to walk past him, towards the house and where Xander was sure Giles was standing. Reaching out to grab her, Xander saw her flinch and stopped himself before he actually made contact, noting the reaction for later. If it was an act, it was a damn good one.

"{_It's not going to be that easy,}"_ he told her. _"{In case you haven't picked up on it wherever they held you, people here don't exactly speak your language.}"_

"{_Barbaric, I know,}" _she said as if it was simple fact. _"{But you underestimate me, Avatar.}"_

"{_Oh, and how's that?}"_

The smirk returned to her face, this time with a bit more sadism. She turned to face Giles, Xander turning with her. "Greetings, I am Princess Azula of the Firenation, Rupert Giles. Perhaps you can find me something a bit less filthy to wear while I am here, hmm?"

When she faced Xander again, he was sure that his mouth was probably hanging open a bit. The words were flawless and her voice held a slight aristocratic tone to it with only a light accent.

"Just because they can't be brought to speak the language of their betters does not mean I cannot learn their own primitive one."

She walked away, slowly, with grace and dignity even in her current state. Xander, meanwhile, could only stare and try to kick start his brain. Someone had taught Azula, Princess of the Firenation and all around evil bitch, English. That alone was scary, especially since she seemed to be perfect at it. What was even scary was the thought that if they taught her that, what else did they teach her?

* * *

"So, let me get this straight. A man wielding a sword, dressed in armor, stopped Joyce from being taken away, slayed the demon that had taken her, and then helped tend to our wounds and called me an ambulance?" Wesley paused, looking at Giles with more confusion, adding, "And you say Xander _knew_ this man?"

"Yes, it was very…confusing, I must say. Coincidences being what they are, it's not something that I'm over looking, but at the time, I was more concerned with Joyce being safe and everyone getting out in one piece." Sighing deeply, Giles leaned back in the hospital chair. "Well, almost everyone."

Frowning, Wesley leaned back as well, his voice gravely and distant. "Yes, of course. _Almost_ everyone."

Both men stayed silent for a moment, reflecting on what had happened early in the week. Giles, despite having more time to get his thoughts straight, was still at a loss as to what to do. He knew protocols and the like for when a Slayer had fallen in battle, even the rather nastier rules for if a Slayer had gone rouge. But, he wasn't a Watcher, not anymore really. He was support, a freelancer at best. Wesley, despite his many short comings when he had first arrived, had grown to be, if not a great Watcher, a fairly competent one. One who, if given the right training and insight, could be amazing. However, with the loss of Faith, there was no telling what might happen.

More importantly, Wesley had become a friend. He didn't want to have this conversation with him, knowing how much it would hurt him and strain the young man, but it had to be done.

Giles had to wait 'til Wesley was well enough to talk about it all. The wounds he had suffered that night had proven to be worse than expected. The concussion had been severe leading to the doctors keeping him for the entire week to monitor him. The two cracked ribs, the sprained wrist, and bruises had all been treated or bandaged as best possible, the physical damage being a usual occurrence in Sunnydale. Giles would have waited longer, if possible, to tell the young man what had happened that night, but he couldn't. He knew the sorrow, shame, and guilt that Wesley would no doubt be feeling, it was the same with any Watcher that lost a Slayer. But to lose one to the Dark, to have your charge turn on her Calling…

It didn't matter how long Wesley had actually known Faith, or how long Giles had known her for that matter. The feelings were still the same. The Watcher Academy had drilled it into their heads how important a Slayer was; how, how she acted and did her job was a reflection on themselves. Perhaps, with Faith, it was more true than others.

"There's more," Giles said, changing the subject. "The, uh, dark version of Willow is still alive, as it were. She was the one who kept Angel busy that night. From what Buffy tells me, he's recovering as well, but he isn't sure how long it will take for him to heal completely. She tortured him for the evening, it seems."

He tried to make himself care about Angel and his wellbeing. Really, he tried, but he only cared as much as it affected the defense of the group, of the Hellmouth. As far as Giles was concerned, no suffering would be enough.

Pushing away his own thoughts, Giles went on, saving the worst news for last. "It also seems that Wolfram and Hart had another…surprise for us." Running a hand through his hair, Giles tried to figure out the best way to say it. After all, explaining how a law firm, even an evil one, transported a girl across dimensions for the sole purpose of defeating Xander. In the end, as always, the direct approach was best.

For the next half hour, Giles told Wesley about Azula. About the girl from another dimension with the ability to bend fire to her will, who was staying at his flat along with Xander. How Xander, despite explaining how dangerous she was, how no one should be alone with her without him or Buffy being there, was to be trusted for the time being. How Xander had hardly let her out of his sight and had gone so far as to keep the door to her bedroom open while she slept. She had taken the bedroom from him the first night there and, despite Xander's objections, the boy had finally relented, opting to sleep in a chair that looked directly into the door way for the past week.

Azula was interesting, to be sure. Rarely did she speak in English unless someone spoke to her first, and even then there was a fifty-fifty chance her only response would be to glare at you 'til you went away. When she did speak, however, her English was flawless. Except for the cultural references and the idioms, Giles would have thought she had always known the language. Her attitude, however, translated perfectly in any language.

It was as if she thought that all of them were beneath her, several times referring to English as a barbaric tongue only to get into an argument with Xander, both of them reverting to her native tongue half way into it. She carried herself as a princess of old would, which is what she had been back in her reality. With her head held high, she walked about the flat, or even in the Summers' home the few times she had been there, the same attitude would be there. In everything she did, she made sure to show how little she thought of everyone and everything around her. If it weren't for how quickly she took to things, how sharp her mind was, Giles would have thought it was simply arrogance. But could it be called arrogance if she truly was that good?

Still, the information she had provided them, as well as the insights into Wolfram and Hart's plans, were invaluable.

"It seems we were correct in our thinking about Faith," Giles told him. "Azula…says it's how Wolfram and Hart were able to coerce Faith into joining them. The offer they made her, well, it's no wonder that she felt she had no choice but to do as they said."

"What did the offer her?" Wesley asked distantly.

"A chance to be free," Giles replied quietly. "A clean slate, mentally at least. All of her memories from her childhood, of her father, would be removed and replaced. Her father, likewise, would be…removed. When Faith became disillusioned with their deal, they threatened to send her back to him, to suppress her strength and send her back to that…_man_.

"All of it, everything she says, collaborates what Lindsey told us before he disappeared. We could assume that they are both lying, but it would be a stretch."

Neither man spoke. It was easy to get lost in thoughts of what-ifs, of guilt, and of sadness. Giles suspected that his own thoughts would mirror Wesley's.

What if they had acted sooner, based on what Buffy and the two of them had found out? Would Faith still be here? Would she have helped them and not gone over the edge? Or, had Faith simply been a girl that was too far gone for any of them to really do anything? It didn't matter now, there was nothing that could be done about it at this point.

"She died in combat," Wesley said softly. At Giles' confused look, he spoke up, adding, "On my official report to the Council, I'm telling them that she died in combat. I'll be making no mention of her…of exactly how she met her end."

"Wesley-"

"b**NO!**/b" he shouted. Regaining his composure, he said, "Her failings are my failings. I should have done something when you first told me about what you found out. Whatever happened after that, the fault lies with me. I won't have her name sullied because of my inexperience. I think she's gone through enough without the Council destroying her memory, don't you?"

Frowning, Giles shook his head. "Of course not. I wouldn't suggest telling the Council anymore than absolutely necessary. However, there is the problem of what happens next."

This time, Wesley was the one looking confused.

"At the moment, we still have one Slayer on the Hellmouth, a budding teenage witch that has more power than I previous thought, a werewolf, a vampire with a soul, a young man with power to control the elements, and, now, a possibly mentally unbalanced princess from an alternate dimension who can control fire and may, as Xander put it, kill us all in our sleep if she felt it served her better. To put it bluntly, between the two of us, we're buggered. If one of us was left alone, there'd be no chance of being able to keep an eye on all of this."

Wesley blinked. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

"I don't mean to encroach on your decisions, but I have a fair number of years more than you in dealing with the Council," Giles went on. "As difficult as it is, I won't mince words here. Wesley, you're a Watcher who had his Slayer die. Under normal circumstances, no Watcher with a Slayer continues to function after that.

"However, you're an unusual case. If they are trying to show you off as the Golden Boy of the _new_ Watcher's Council, I wouldn't put it past them to place you with the new Slayer."

"I had barely thought…_damn_." Wesley leaned his head back onto the pillow on the upright hospital bed. "I hadn't even thought about the new Slayer being called. Why me, though? If Faith…if my Slayer died, surely they wouldn't want to leave another one in my care."

Shaking his head sadly, Giles explained. "Faith, as well as Buffy, are both eye-sores to the Council. Black sheep, as it were. They both weren't raised as Slayers from the beginning. Their deaths would not only look like their own failings, but a chance to prove that their ways are best, that a Slayer raised by a Watcher provides the best weapon. Giving you a new Slayer, a _proper_ Slayer, would only further prove their point. A proper Watcher for a proper Slayer."

"They must know who the Slayer is by this point," Wesley reasoned. "No one from the Council has tried to contact me."

"They'll be waiting for your call," Giles told him patiently. "But, again, what do you want to do when you reach them?"

"Rupert, we can't just let them give a newly called Slayer to someone from the Council!" Wesley exclaimed. He stopped, realized what he said, and chuckled roughly. "Things have changed, haven't they?"

Giles couldn't help but smirk despite the conversation they were having. "Yes, I'd say they certainly have. But getting back to the topic at hand…Wesley, the fact of the matter is that we have the very real possibility that things here can get out of hand very quickly. I wasn't exaggerating when I told you that we are barely holding on to things. I can only imagine that things will get progressively worse as time goes on."

"Are you suggesting that we try to get the Council to send the girl here, to the Hellmouth? I would think that they would want to have her as far from Buffy as possible."

Leaning forward, taking a deep breath, Giles looked at Wesley seriously. "They would. Not only that, but I wouldn't put it past the Council to use one of their wet work teams to eliminate Buffy and any influence she may have on the younger Slayer."

"You can't be serious? They actually have those?" Wesley questioned. "I-I-I thought they were just a rumor!"

"I can assure you, they are real. And if they try, I can assure you, with just as much surety, they _will not_ succeed. But, Wesley, the new Slayer will not be allowed to come to the Hellmouth so long as Buffy is here. They would move you from this place, from the situation here, and monitor it from afar."

"I won't leave," Wesley replied automatically. "There's too much at stake here, far more than the Council, my father, can understand."

Nodding, Giles looked grim. "I know, which is why what I have to suggest isn't going to be easy to accept. Wesley, in order for us to take care of things here, in order to make sure that things don't implode on the Hellmouth you'll have to sever ties with the Council."

It took a few seconds for Wesley to respond. His face switched from many different reactions, and his mouth opened and closed several times, but finally his shoulders sagged and he nodded his head. "Yes, of course. As long as the Council is even remotely involved, we won't be able to move freely." He took a deep breath. "As soon as they assign me the new Slayer, whoever she is, I'll come back here with her. I think with the combined forces here, not the least of which would be two Slayers, not even the Council would-"

"Wesley," Giles interrupted. "You can't."

"What?"

"You can't go back to them, not if you choose this path. The newly called Slayer, we can't go after her. As much as I hate to say it, we simply can't handle trying to take a Slayer who has been raised from birth by the Council and hope to keep her with us without the Council stepping in. Losing one Slayer in bad enough, but they won't tolerate having two Slayers operating outside of their influence. Is that really a war you think we can win? A three sided front? Wolfram and Hart, The Council, and the Hellmouth itself?"

"But...she's just a girl." Wesley said weakly. "We know what they'll do to her."

Closing his eyes, Giles nodded his head. "I know, Wesley. Believe me, if it were possible, I would go with you to take her, but we can't. Not if we want a chance of winning doing anything right here."

Getting up, Giles brushed his hands off on his pants. "Well, I'll…leave you to think about it. No one will force you, Wesley. Whatever you have to do, you'll have our support."

As he turned to leave, Wesley stopped him at the door.

"Is this what we do? Now, I mean. Is this how we do things now?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do we plan for the long term, damning whoever doesn't fit into what we need?"

"Do you really believe that I would leave anyone at the hands of the Council if I could help it?"

"No, no I don't," Wesley said, looking down. "I just never thought that leaving anyone behind was an option before."


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: OK, so those two chapters that I had ready? Well, it turns out they work better as one big chapter, so here they are! It may be a while till I get another chapter up. This semester is really doing a number on me. So, bare with me. Thanks again to Greywizard for the beta help and to all of the reviews. If I forgot to respond to any, sorry! As always, feed back is always good and this story is not finished or given up on. Enjoy!

Chapter 21

_"{You're doing it wrong,}" _Azula said, watching from a nearby rock, sitting on it as if it was a throne.

_"{Last time I checked, you're only good at destroying things, so you'll forgive me for not caring all that much about what you think,}" _Xander snapped back, redoubling his concentration on the water near him. _"{And I didn't ask you for your advice.}"_

She looked off to the side, making it clear she was no longer interested. _"{Have it your way. But don't blame me when she beats you. Again.}"_

Growling in frustration, Xander ignored the young woman's comments and rushed forward bringing some of the water from the pond towards him in the process. He had barely sent a jet of water at Buffy before she was almost on top of him, sidestepping the attack and coming at him. He ducked and dodged the kicks she delivered, but he was getting frustrated and, admittedly, sloppy. Each time he and Buffy squared off, it was taking less and less time for her to put him down. As if on cue, Xander felt his legs get swept out from under him.

"Damn it!" Xander snarled, slamming his palm onto the ground.

"Xand, maybe we should take a break," Buffy offered, offering him her hand.

Forcing himself to take the hand and not be a complete idiot, Xander angrily nodded. "I don't know what the hell's wrong with me. I _know_ I'm better than this. It's like there's this…this block or something."

"You do seem a bit…distracted," Buffy said hesitating slightly.

Shooting a dark look in Azula's direction, Xander muttered, "I'm fine."

"You don't expect me to believe that, do you?"

Turning away from her, Xander clenched his fist, trying to quell the dark emotions welling up inside of him for what seemed like the umpteenth time that day alone. The training was supposed to help him let some of the stress and anger out in a healthy way before he ended up losing it and destroying Giles' apartment. There hadn't been much time for any training, no proper training anyway, for a few weeks now. He was ready to snap and everybody knew it.

He felt someone squeeze his shoulder. Reaching back, he felt Buffy's hand and gave her a gentle squeeze back. Relaxing his shoulders, losing some of the tension in his muscles, he turned back around.

"Sorry," he told her. "I'm not at the top of my game, huh?"

"Understandable." Buffy paused, seemingly deciding on if she should say something or not. Dropping her hand from his shoulder and tucking them into the pocket of her sweat pants, she made up her mind.

"Xand, no one expects you to be completely OK, yet," she said speaking softly. "After everything that happened…" She paused stopped, trying to find the words. "I know that he isn't your favorite subject, but when I lost Angel last year, when I had to stop Acathla and sent Angel to hell, I was a wreck."

Xander tensed up for an entirely different reason this time. "Um, no, it's fine. Angel's, you know, he's alright, I guess," he said, hoping to cover it up. The last thing he needed was to have _that_ talk with Buffy right now.

With a small bitter chuckle, Buffy shook her head and ignored him. "I mean, I ran off to L.A. and changed my name. If that doesn't scream complete and total mess, I don't know what does.

"But, my point is that it takes time. I know I don't know exactly what you and Faith were, or if even you know what you were, but I know she meant a lot to you. Don't try to push it away. Whatever you're feeling let it happen."

"I'm fine with what happened," Xander bit out. Nodding over to Azula, not caring that she was watching, and probably listening in, he added, "It's _her_ that I'm not fine with."

Buffy nodded in understanding. Xander knew that the Firebender had taken it as something of a hobby to poke and prod Buffy in just the right ways to irritate her to no end. Well, that was when she chose to actually speak English, anyway. Azula was constantly calling into question her tactics when it came to patrolling, her training sessions with either Giles or Wesley, or simply making a comment in just the right way. In perfect Azula fashion, it never once sounded petty, just mean and, when they thought about it, right. Everything she said to Buffy, every critique and criticism, were all true. She made insights into plans and into maneuvers that none of them had seen or had thought about. It only made her all the more annoying, at the best of times. On several occasions, Buffy had to be stopped from attacking the other girl, who merely stood there, smirking, never making a move to stop or retaliate against Buffy. She would walk away after that, leaving an infuriated Buffy with no outlet and a lot of frustration. But, no matter what, Azula's comments where always taken into consideration, often times being implemented completely or worked in somehow.

Xander wanted desperately to leave her alone, to get some time away from the girl who had killed Faith, even if possibly in self defense. The fact of the matter was that no matter what happened, no matter how many times Azula _didn't_ slit one of their throats when given the chance, he couldn't take the chance that she wouldn't. Rarely did he leave her by herself. The first two weeks he absolutely refused to have anyone but himself or Buffy watch her. After a time, he had allowed Giles and Wesley stay with her, preferably together and armed, to watch her. Not that the weapons would have made that big of a difference if Azula did want to attack, but it made him feel better knowing they had at least a small chance. Still, he couldn't let her out of his sight for more than an hour at a time without fear gripping him. So he took her everywhere with him, all the while being torn up inside by her presence. The way she moved, spoke, sat down, even breathed. It all got under his skin and made it almost impossible to control his emotions.

"I can feel her, you know? Watching me, marking down everything I do and cataloging it and filing it away for future use," Xander said in a harsh whisper, seeing Azula lean back slightly on the rock, looking to all the world to be examining the water in the lake and not the pair of them.

"We could have left her back at the apartment," Buffy offered. The two looked at each other. "Right, OK, so _you_ couldn't have left her there, I guess."

"You think I like dragging her around with me?" Xander hissed. "I can't stand her!"

"I know, I know," Buffy replied placating. "You want to watch her, I get it. But watching her is getting in the way of everything else. Trust me, I get how she can get to you, I've wanted to throttle her on more than one occasion. But, you keep talking about how she's this master tactician or something, right? Well, what if this is her plan?"

"Her plan? To annoy me to death?"

"Well, yeah." Seeing his confused look, Buffy explained.

"The more time you spend with her, the more you're messing up. You've said it yourself, you're not at your best. You haven't had a full night's sleep since she's shown up, you fall asleep while researching and while we're on the subject, your attitude isn't fairing so well either."

"Anything else you want to say or is the intervention over?"

Folding her arms over her chest, Buffy jutted her chin out. "I'm trying to help you, Xander. Maybe if you listened to me for once when I said that, you wouldn't be in this mess."

"Oh you think you could have done any better?" Xander snapped. "You think I should just let _her_ wander around on her own? Leave her with Giles and Wesley who wouldn't last five seconds if they're lucky? Or how about your mom? Think she'd be up for-"

His sentence was cut short by Buffy's fist coming at him. Like any good fighter would, he came up with the stunning plan that she wouldn't see coming and blocked it with his face. _'Ha! Bet you didn't see that one coming, did you?'_ He mentally taunted lying on his back and letting his vision return to normal. All in all, it could have been a lot worse. His nose wasn't broken or even bleeding. Considering she probably could have punched _through_ his face if she really wanted to, this was comparable to a love tap. It didn't make it hurt any less though.

_"{You really have a way with people, Avatar,}" _Azula told him idly. _"{You also let your guard down. Sloppy.}"_

_ "{I didn't ask your opinion!}" _he snapped, for the second time. Looking back at Buffy, he found her reaching out her hand to him. Reluctantly, and with a bit of shame, he took it and let her help him up, again.

"More pleasant conversation?" Buffy asked with a sideways look at the Firebender.

"Annoying commentary is the last thing I need right now," Xander said, thankful to have a moment to brush himself off.

"Look…I'm not trying to attack you."

Xander raised an eyebrow and watched her smirk sheepishly.

"OK, OK. _Despite_ what I just did, I'm not looking to attack you. I'm just…worried. We all are, Xander."

Before he could reply, Azula cut him off, this time speaking so Buffy could understand.

"They have every reason to be worried," Azula said, sliding off the rock and walking towards the pair. Instinctively, Xander moved himself slightly in front of Buffy while turning to face the Princess.

She stopped several feet away before continuing. "Alexander here knows perfectly well what I'm capable of, and I, him. In my short time here, I can tell that none of you can say the same about either of us. Meanwhile, I know all of you, perfectly."

"I know full well what he can do," Buffy retorted, her voice taking on a dangerous tone.

"Oh, I have no doubt that you know it intellectually, or as much as someone as yourself _can_ know anything in that regard," Azula told her with a small shrug. "You've seen him exert himself with tremendous displays, I'm certain. All the while thinking that this was merely the exception to his power when, in fact, they are the norm."

"I know Xander better than you ever could," Buffy said, taking several steps forward, only stopping when Xander put his arm out.

"Do you?" Azula said with a smirk. "Leaving that aside for the moment, let's say you do. Then you are either an ignorant mongrel or think so little of him that you disregard his advice. Either way, your foolishness is going to cost you."

"_Excuse me_?"

If he could have, Xander would have Earthbended a wall between the two women. (Dear God, he needed to start training in Earthbending). All he could do was put both hands on Buffy's shoulders to hold her back, hissing, _"{Azula, cut it out!}"_

His grip had about as much success as expected and he soon found himself being pushed forward as Buffy stalked towards a waiting Azula.

"You want to repeat that?" Buffy asked dangerously.

"I said that you are an ignorant barbarian mongrel and should listen to the advice of someone that knows better than you." Azula didn't bother speaking in hushed tones, or even look out of sorts. Her voice was clear and her body language screamed confidence.

"Xander," Buffy said after a full two minutes of staring the other girl down, "move."

_"{Azula, stop it! We talked about this,}" _he yelled at Azula. Turning back to Buffy, he said, "Don't do this. She's goading you, and you know it. Don't listen to her, don't play her game."

For a moment, it looked as if she might listen to him. Un-tensing the muscles in his arm, Xander let out a mental sigh of relief. Something must have changed though, or more likely, something that Azula did while his back was turned must have set Buffy off.

Slipping out of his grasp, the petite blonde shoved him out of the way knocking him to the floor. Despite the rough landing and rolling along the floor for a moment, it was relatively gentle. Looking up, he saw something that he really wished he would never have to see. Buffy was attacking Azula.

Despite her enhanced speed, strength, and preternatural fighting prowess, Buffy wasn't raised as a warrior. Sure, she had been turned into one and had a supernatural advantage in that department, but Azula was different. From an early age, Azula had been trained both physically and mentally to be a not only a fighter, but the best fighter. While everyone knew that the girl was a prodigy at Firebending, doing amazing things with the art, they often forgot that she was just as intelligent and versatile in most other forms of combat and strategy. While she had never once sparred with Buffy herself, she had witnessed her sparring and training with other people, most specifically, Xander himself.

It was then than that Xander realized his mistake all too late, his words to Buffy glaring at him like a spotlight. All this time while he had been bringing Azula with him everywhere, he hadn't been keeping her out of trouble or making sure she wasn't planning something, he had been giving her access to everything she would need. She saw how they interacted, how they trained, how they fought, and what they knew. Without ever laying a hand on the Slayer before, Azula had already worked out a plan for fighting her and he had given her all the opportunity she needed to come up with it.

Buffy had been used to fighting opponents that could do some fairly interesting things. She had fought against Xander on several occasions and had come to understand how fighting a bender worked. You got in close and pushed the advantage till you got them off balance. It was what she did every time she fought against him and to be fair, it worked almost as often as it didn't. But, that was against Waterbending and Airbending, two arts that preferred to fight from a distance whenever possible. Firebenders were another story altogether.

If Buffy was surprised by her first two jabs being pushed aside casually, she didn't show it. As Buffy pushed forward, Azula matched her step for step, moving back and moving just far enough so each of Buffy's punches missed by a hairbreadth. The leg sweep that was sent her way was too fast to be dodged completely; at least that's what Xander had thought. With what could only be described as a perfect back flip, Azula managed to not only keep herself from being hit, but put a few feet of distance between the two of them.

Watching her land in a crouch, Xander took one look at the predatory smirk on her face and started moving. Jumping up, he started to pull a large amount of water from the lake, rushing to intervene in time. The barricade of water he threw up almost wasn't fast enough to stop Azula's attack and, as he was about to find out, was sure as well not thick enough to completely do the job.

Intense blue flame sprung forth from Azula's fist as she punched forward, sending the fire rushing towards Buffy. Fire and water met, exploding in a burst of steam. The blast from the sudden evaporation of the water was enough to send Buffy to the floor, which was just as well. The heat from the steam was enough to burn any exposed skin. Unless, of course, you happened to be a Firebender or an Avatar who had been expecting such a reaction.

With one quick move of his hands, Xander dispersed the steam from the area and simultaneously brought more water to him, encasing both forearms in the liquid as was his preferred way to start any fight. It gave him both the benefits of being able to lash out and defend, depending on what the opening move allowed. Fighting Azula, of course, meant being on the defensive.

Two blue balls of flame came flying. The blast of air from a double kick extinguished the fire, but only left him open for her follow up. A short stream of fire came rushing at him and it was only pure luck that he was able to dodge it, hoping that Buffy wasn't behind him. Xander, deciding to go on the offensive, used the water on his arms to send out three disk of ice about the size of a Frisbee, if a bit thicker. He would have preferred to make them thin enough to cut her, but he had no delusions about the person in front of him. She would block and break them at that width. If they were a bit heavier, she would be forced to move out of the way, buying him a few seconds at most, but seconds that were badly needed.

The three disks flew straight and true, for all the good it did. The size did absolutely nothing. Azula blocked the first two with a fire shield from each forearm, sweeping them in front of her with practiced ease. The third, she didn't even bother blocking. Kicking her right leg up high, she brought it back down, smashing the ice into several pieces. Not one to waste any opportunity, she sent out a vertical arc of fire with the decent of her leg.

Pulling more water from the lake, Xander blocked the fire before it fell on top of him and quickly redirected the water to hit Azula from both sides, one going high while the other went low. It should have amazed him how Azula simply spun in midair between the water, but it didn't. For some reason, the only thing he could think of was, _'Typical.' _That was, of course, before she let loose with a blast of fire from her feet as she spun, the concussive force of it sending her flying backwards.

As if in slow motion, Xander watched the blue flame come towards him. He was still in the middle of his failed attack, his control and movements centered on the two separate and large amounts of water. There was no way he'd be able to bring the water to him in time. Likewise, dropping the water and either calling more water to himself or a gust or air. Hell, he wouldn't have enough time to get out of the way. As the fire rushed forward, he started the futile process of erecting an air barrier knowing full well it wouldn't be up in time.

Without warning, he found himself tackled roughly to the ground by Buffy. The jet of fire missed completely, hitting a tree at the beginning of the clearing by the lake with explosive results. Bits of smoking and flaming wood and splinters showered the area. Not that a few bits of burning wood where anything to worry about compared to what was sure to happen next.

Again, he felt himself pulled in one direction and found himself rolling in the dirt once more, this time with Buffy keeping herself close and moving with him. This time, the miss was so narrow that the heat of the flame hitting their previous spot was enough to singe the hair on his arm.

Buffy quickly rolled off of him and made to go left only to find herself cut off by a thin stream of fire blocking her path. With two more similar moves, Azula had completely boxed her in. Any direction she went to go in, Azula would send a short salvo of fire in front of her. Almost as if to prove her point, the Firebender punched out both fist producing another blast of fire on either side of Buffy before kicking out, shooting a small flame at the other girls feet, forcing her to jump back to keep from getting burned.

While Xander hated letting Buffy be a distraction, it gave him the time to center his mind and gather himself. Before Azula could do anything else, Xander drew more water to him, compressing it while swinging his arm upwards and away. The thin, hard, wave of water rushed forward, forcing Azula to jump away, spinning in much the same way she had before, letting his attack pass by harmlessly. Landing, she let loose with another volley of fire, this time with two separate blast, one to Buffy and the other to him, forcing Xander to block for himself or move and defend Buffy. Instead, he leapt high into the air, sending out a gust of wind strong enough to put out both of her flames. Unfortunately, it also knocked Buffy on her side at the same time.

While in midair, he sent a pair of air blast, hoping to at least push Azula back a bit. Instead, she moved out of the, pressing forward and headed towards him. When he landed, he immediately began dodging and dancing around her attacks. Every punch and kick accented by a burst of blue fire. Without being able to get off the defensive the best he could hope for was to tire her out, which wasn't the kind of plan that had any hope in succeeding. Every so often, she would make sure to spin and send a bout of flame at Buffy, forcing the Slayer to stay away, before turning back to him.

In a matter of seconds, Xander found himself trapped with his back painfully pressed against the very rock Azula had been sitting on. With two fingers pointed at his throat, the Princess produced a flame as intense as any blowtorch keeping just far enough away to keep from burning him, but only just. Just as quickly, she snapped out her other hand, stopping Buffy on her tracks with the same type of fire coming from her other hand. This time, it was pointed at eye level for the shorter girl.

For a moment, the only sound that Xander was able to hear was the tiny roar of the twin flames, the only thing he could feel was the searing heat that threatened to blister the sensitive skin on his neck near his jugular. Hard amber eyes found his and, in an instant, the noise and sensation were gone.

Both flames were put out with a flick of her wrist as Azula calmly turned to Buffy.

"You are strong, I'll give you that," Azula said lightly, continuing to stare Buffy down. "But you are severely outmatched. Alexander tried to tell you this, has _been_ telling you this, and yet you and those around you continue to ignore him. When a subordinate fails to listen it is not a mistake when something goes wrong, it is ignorance and foolishness."

Azula motioned to the area around her, her movements slow and graceful, as if trying to show a child something obvious. "Since you can't trust his words, then try and believe your eyes. This is but a small portion of what I am capable of. You will do well to remember that, barbarian."

Xander, unlike Buffy, didn't need to see what the Firebender was talking about. From just a few moments of what probably amounted to a light sparring match for her, Azula had done serious damage to the area. Though the fires were, thankfully, small, they continued to burn. The ground had several deep troughs burned into them. No less than three trees were beyond salvaging, one of them was no more than a smoldering stump. Water soaked the ground making it look as if the pond had somehow overflowed, the ground quickly becoming soggy and muddy. One rock, smaller than the one that Xander was still pressing himself against, had had the top of it sliced completely off, the stone only now beginning to go from an angry red to a relatively more cool burnt color.

It only just clicked in his head that Azula hadn't been trying to kill him or Buffy. Hurt, possibly, but not kill. For Azula, this was an object lesson, one that she felt those around her, save himself, needed to be taught. Namely, that she was something to be feared, and rightfully so. It was a sobering thought, knowing that had she actually been trying to do them in, it was a highly likely that both he and Buffy would be nothing more than a burnt, oily, greasy, smudge on the grass.

With a few casual movements, Xander began quenching the open flames. Another forest fire or two and people would start to think that he was an arson. As he expected, Azula didn't lift a finger to help put out the fires she so easily caused. Instead, she stood by the largest fire, the one by the burnt out tree stump keeping him from dousing it. Buffy, well, she wouldn't be much help in this situation anyway, so he didn't bother moving her from where she stood. She wasn't frozen or awed, not that he could tell anyway. The way she stood, looking at the burnt and slightly ruined landscape, she seemed humbled if anything. That and she now seemed to be showing a healthy amount of tension around Azula.

Speaking of which.

"_{I should lock you away somewhere for what you just did,}"_ Xander said standing next to her. Despite speaking in her native tongue, he kept his voice low not wanting Buffy to hear him.

"_{They tried that. It did wonders for my social skills.}"_

"_{I mean it, Azula. You attacked me, you attacked my friend, and for what? To prove a point? To show how scary the big bad Fire Nation princess is?}"_ He turned, facing her fully. _"{Bending isn't natural here if you hadn't caught on. Nothing that any of us can do is _natural_. Do you have any idea what would happen if someone, someone who actually had any damn power or authority saw us, saw what we could do?}"_

Turning her head, she raised an eyebrow. _"{All research into this town shows that they wouldn't notice a herd of wild Komodo Rhino's stampeding through the streets. The people here are even more brain dead then the peasants back home. So much going on around them and none of them have the slightest clue. Is it any wonder that they are food for the creatures that inhabit this town?}"_

"_{That isn't the point!}" _he yelled. _"{They'd kill us on sight. They'd round us up in the town square and burn us at the stake. I've seen it!}"_

Maybe it was the fire casting a slight shadow on her face, but the smirk she gave him sent an involuntary shiver down his spine. The girl was beyond creepy at times. _"{They can try.}"_

"_{You're good, but not that good.}"_

"_{I'm better than anything this world has to offer. Better than you. Though you'll forgive me for not being surprised at that.}"_

Despite the truth behind her statement, Xander tried to spit out a response. When none were quick enough, Azula dropped her smirk and looked at him dangerously.

"_{You fight like a mongrel dog that has learned a few new tricks, constantly waiting for the approval of its owner. You fight like one of them, always on their terms. You may control two of the elements, but you are far from their master. If it weren't for the fact that you are the only hope I have, the only link to my world, I'd kill you before you could ever sully the art of Firebending.}"_

"_{What?}"_

"_{Several times you came at me as you would a non-bender. Every time you spar with the Slayer you let her set the tone of the fight. You lack the heart of a bender, the heart of a true warrior. You could easily overpower and outfight any opponent this world has to offer, and yet you hold back.}"_

In a flash of insight, Xander held his tongue. He went over the fight in his head as well as his last few sparring sessions with Buffy and he realized one frightening fact. Azula was right. Sure, he knew that the girl had a way with seeing to the truth of the matter in an overly direct way. And, yes, she stated her opinions with such disdain for those who hadn't seen what she had seen that it put Cordelia to shame. But all of those times, even knowing that she was technically correct with what she was saying, he always seconded guessed it because, well, it came from freaking Azula. But now, with this small revelation, he didn't feel anything negative towards her or what she said. It just dawned on him that what she had told him was true.

Was it because he was so used to that way of fighting that he just let his bending fall into that style as well? He had always taken opponents on one at a time, mostly keeping them busy enough for Buffy or someone else to come along and finish them off. Air could certainly be used to taken on multiple opponents, it was one of the arts greatest strength, but rarely did he use it that way and he still was used to trying to bring fights into more personal ranges than distancing himself from his opponent.

The same could be said about Waterbending. It was graceful, but powerful. The whole damn thing was about movement and redistribution of energy, of knowing when to go with the current and when to steer it. Instead he fought like a tree, rooted to the spot while he flung water whips around like branches in a breeze. Very few times did he ever actually move and bend water while sparring, and one of those times was that evening on the beach so he could show everyone what he had been holding back.

Could he even fight like that at this point? Was this way of doing things so ingrained that even with his now natural ability to move like the elements he commanded he was forced to fight like he couldn't do more than those he was fighting? The jumping and constant motion of Airbending always seemed to call to him, but now that he thought about it, he only did as much as was needed. He suppressed the urge to take to the sky or to move about and use the wind to speed him along. It was, as he had just realized, even worse when he was using Waterbending.

"_{You know I'm right,}"_ Azula told him, her voice neutral. When he didn't respond, she continued. _"{While with those…_peopl_e, I wasn't only studying them and pretending to offer my assistance, I was studying you. I watched how you interacted, how you carried yourself, and I'll admit something to you.}" _She paused, almost as if for dramatic effect, which Xander wouldn't have put past her. _"{I didn't understand.}"_

"_{What?}" _Xander asked surprised. As far as revelations went, this one was kind of anti-climatic. _"{You didn't understand? What was there to understand?}"_

"_{You,}" _she replied. Her eyes never wavered from his and she continued to speak in the same steady, almost monotone way. It was almost more creepy than when she was being angry. _"{You, the Avatar, had more power than anyone else that I have seen in this world. Granted, you aren't at your full potential, but you still had more than enough in way of ability to do away with anyone who stood in your way. But all I saw was a boy hiding who and what he was. Cowed into keeping it a secret because of how others viewed him and constantly being put down by those below him.}" _

Her voice grew harder, her eyes narrowing. _"{You have no concept of who you are, of what you represent. My people, my culture, my _**world **_rest inside of you and you act like nothing more than a chittering monkey, at best!}"_

"_{Hey!}" _Xander exclaimed.

Before he could protest any further, she started speaking again.

"_{The Avatar is better than this, better than how you are acting and worth far more than the work you put into it. You don't train nearly as much as you should and you lack anything that even resembles focus.}"_

He knew that what she said was right. Logically, it made perfect sense and what he should have done was walked away, thought about what she had been saying, and see exactly how true her words really were. That was the adult thing to do, the mature thing.

One thing about Alexander LaVelle Harris that could never be said was that he was mature.

The punch was all power and little skill. It was akin to a truck rumbling down the street. There was a lot of warning. Hell, he actually pulled his arm back, which he hadn't done to throw a punch since his melding with the Avatar and actually learning how to fight. But, just like a truck, it didn't much matter how much attention it drew so long as it went in a straight line it was going to do damage and his aim was damn good. His knuckles, white from clenching his fist so tight, were lined up perfectly with her nose. A dark part of his mind was already reveling in the feel of her skin splitting open and the sound of her cartilage breaking under his hand.

His fist, unfortunately, wasn't a truck. Trucks don't get deflected by the forearm of a svelte, albeit unbelievably toned, girl. Trucks also didn't have joints that could be manipulated.

Unlike the moves of an Airbender or Waterbender, Azula didn't work some complicated lock or twist. Her moves were rough, hard. Once she deflected his punch, she grabbed his wrist with the hand she blocked with and pulled down. Her left elbow came down like a falling brick, smashing the crook of his own elbow forcing it to bend. It didn't take much more work for her to grab him by his bent elbow, slip her foot behind his, and push up on his arm. The fall was less than graceful and Azula followed him all the way down keeping an iron like grip on his arm. It was painful, but tolerable.

Catching Buffy's eye Xander gave her a small shake of his head warning her off from doing anything. Azula didn't want him dead, she had proved that earlier.

_"{Sloppy. Extremely sloppy. If I had wanted to, I could have killed you five different ways just now. You and I both know that you're better than this, but you act on anger. You let yourself be led by your emotions into actions that can easily lead to your end.}"_

He gave a small grunt as Azula put more pressure on his arm, proving her point. _"{And you're the perfect person to show me how to control my emotions, huh?}" _he asked, his voice laced with sarcasm.

With a final shove of his arm Azula stood up, looking down at Xander. _"{My emotions are in complete control. _I _am in complete control.}"_

Xander wanted to make a remark about mother issues and her bout of insanity, that may still be present, but he didn't. As much as he hated her he didn't want to antagonize her. It wouldn't be productive to do it and would just lead to a longer more drawn out fight. And this time she probably wouldn't hold back. Not to mention she had the advantage with the whole literally standing over him.

Propping himself up on his elbows, holding back the wince as his right arm protested the movement after being nearly wrenched from its socket, Xander gave her a thoughtful look. _"{What does it matter to you? I'm not your Avatar, Princess.}"_

_ "{It matters because there are people who need you,}" _she said surprising him. _"{It matters because you have a responsibility as the Avatar to bring balance to the world. But mostly, it matters because I will not stand her and have you make a mockery of my world. You are the embodiment of all that my world believes in, of all of its history and heritage. You say that you aren't my Avatar, but you're wrong. You are the only Avatar I have and you _will _treat that title with the respect it deserves.}"_

_ "{But you wanted to kill Aang!}" _Xander said without thinking.

Rolling her eyes, Azula crossed her arms. _"{The monk stood against me and my people, against my father, you idiot. It didn't matter who was in the way then.}" _She paused, and only the slight twitch in her shoulders gave away how uncomfortable she was at the moment. _"{And, it seems, that I may have been…misled…at times.}"_

_ "{Misled,}" _Xander repeated the word, slowly.

Her eyes flashed with anger, her mood changing abruptly. _"{Do not mistake my words as regret, Avatar. The Fire Nation _is _the greatest country in all of my world and, if given the time to grow as yours has, this world as well.}" _She calmed down again, her eyes softening as much as her eyes ever did. Frowning slightly, she said,_ "{Domination, while perhaps not the best course of action, would have helped in the long run. Had the rest of the world simply submitted to our rule, a lot of the destruction could have been avoided. But, wiping out an entire people was perhaps not the smartest way to do things. One thing I have learned about your world is that peace is not possible with all out war. There needs to be…balance.}"_

Surprise didn't even begin to cover what Xander was hearing. It wasn't an admission of any kind of wrong doing on her part. Actually, it sounded more like that if she could she would still choose to rule over the entire world and that it would be _good_ for the world. But the mention of balance was completely foreign to him when it came to Azula. The girl was responsible for the fall of an entire nation and lost her mind shortly thereafter. What could she possibly know about balance?

Sure, she could be lying, but what did she have to gain from it? It wasn't as if she was trying to tell him that she was sorry for what she did and wanted to make up for it. She'd probably do it again if given a chance only this time she'd do it right. So what the hell was she getting at?

Apparently, Xander wasn't that adept at keeping his thoughts off his face.

Looking away towards the setting sun, Azula exhaled slowly. When she spoke, it was detached slightly, almost clinical in explanation. Strangely, it didn't sound far off from her normal voice, only with less anger.

"_{When I was first brought here, to this world, I wasn't stable. After my Agni Ki with Zuko, I wasn't the same. The doctors they forced me to see spoke to me at length about it. Of course, that was after they had this…thing come and piece my mind back together to a more lucid state, teaching me their language. Oh, and taking my own thoughts and memories from me at the same time. It took several visits, mind you, and I hated sullying myself with their words, but it was impressive. _

"_{Either way, the normal doctors, those that worked on my mind, they had a lot to say about my father and mother.}" _She smiles remembering something. _"{They kept my hands and feet shackled to a chair and faced me away from whoever was talking to me after the third visit. They didn't know a thing about a true Firebender and they seemed annoyed at having to treat so many burns.}"_

Snapping out of it, she looks back down at Xander. _"{I won't bore you with the details, but they gave me a lot to think about. My views haven't changed, or my goals. But there are better ways to get what I want than to burn a village to the ground. Not as direct and more time consuming ways, yes, but they seem to work better in the long run.}"_

There was a lot that Xander wanted to say, wanted to ask. A multitude of thoughts fought for dominance as he looked up at Azula. Her face covered in shadows and the sun sank deeper into the horizon gave her a depressed look, and for a moment he couldn't help but sympathize with her. The moment passed instantly. This was still Azula after all. This was still the same person who could probably be lying to him at this very moment and making it sound all too true. Most importantly, this was still the same person who killed Faith, and who knows how many others, and showed no remorse for it what-so-ever.

Keeping his mouth shut, Xander picked himself off the ground and wiped his hands off on his shorts. Even the oncoming night held no relief from the heat. Summer was in full swing already and it was barely halfway into June.

'_Crap,'_ Xander thought. _'It's almost dark already.'_

Buffy, it seemed, had the same thought as him. Turning to him, her face unreadable after the fight with Azula, she said, "We should get going. I'll drop you guys off at the apartment then head out for patrol."

Nodding in agreement, Xander turned to Azula to see if she heard. Well, he knew she heard. She was always listening. He just wanted to make sure that she acknowledged what she heard. Apparently she had. Before either of them could say anything else, Azula strode past Xander and then Buffy, not bothering to deign either of them with even a look.

Without having to say anything, Xander walked after her with Buffy matching his steps.

'_At the very least,'_ Xander thought sourly, _'Buffy has a healthy respect and fear for what Azula can do. Maybe I won't be the only one not sleeping at night now.'_

* * *

Night fell quickly as the three of them made their way back from the park. Despite the numerous shortcuts they could have taken through the cemeteries Xander vetoed the idea. He knew Buffy understood why, but he could see the annoyance on her face. Like him, she wanted to get away from Azula as soon as possible and, at least in her case, vent her frustration on whatever poor demonic bastard crossed her path. But those demons and vampires were the very reason why those shortcuts were off limits at the moment. Neither of them wanted to run into any kind of situation where Azula might get too involved. While she may not want them dead, they still weren't a hundred percent on her sanity and a fight with a few vampires might push her over the edge and burn the town to the foundations for all they knew.

So, while it was longer and had them on the streets after dark, it was safer than the alternative in his opinion. At least, that was until they saw Angel standing outside the gates to Cedar Grove Cemetery. He had spotted them long before they spotted him, but he remained perfectly still leaning against the wall with his hands stuffed deep into the pockets of his duster. The only indication that he had of seen them was that him looking up as they came closer.

"Angel?" Buffy asked when they got close enough for her to talk. "What are you doing here?" Realizing how it must have sounded, Buffy quickly reiterated. "I mean, it's nice to see you, it's always nice to see you. I just didn't think you were going to be patrolling tonight. Or that you would have at least asked me along. Wait, did you ask me along? Were we supposed to be patrolling together tonight?"

Inwardly, Xander smirked at his friends babbling. On the outside, he remained calm and scanned the area a bit. Holding his arm out slightly, he signaled for Azula to stop and stay a few feet or so behind Buffy with him. When she came and stood next to him, watching the scene in front of them with slight interest, he instinctively scratched his arm. It made his skin crawl at times having her so close to him.

Angel gave them a confused look before turning to Buffy. "What are you talking about? You told me you wanted to me to meet you here."

"No I didn't," Buffy told him. Instantly, she went on alert and started looking around.

"Anyone else starting to smell a trap?" Angel said going to stand next to Buffy, watching her back.

"I'll take a trap over blood any day of the week," Buffy muttered. "Xander! Anything on your end?"

Having told Azula to stay still, Xander jumped the twenty feet onto the high wall of the cemetery. Cedar Grove was one of the few places in town that actually bothered putting up anything to deter the 'vandals' of the town from going inside and desecrating the place. They also made sure the tall gates were locked at night as well. Not that it did any good, but the thought was sometimes appreciated.

From his vantage point, Xander looked around wildly for any sign of something crazy going on inside the graveyard. A horde of angry demons, a flock of vampires, or even a large group of Elvis impersonators, but there was nothing to be seen. Even with some of the hills and with the darkness, he could still see a bit of ways into the place and nothing had caught his eye as strange or threatening.

"Nothing over here," Xander called down. "Want me to hop over and get the gate?"

As soon as he finished his question, a light click was heard and the gate slowly swung open, complete with the whining protest of hinges that hadn't been oiled in far too long. Everyone, including Azula, stared at the gates opened and stopped before banging into the other side of the wall.

"This is the part where we all say, 'Gee, let's go check out the creepy cemetery', right?"

"Buffy," Angel simply said. It was more than just to get her attention, there was something else in his voice. A warning of sorts that made the hair on the back of Xander's neck stand up and take notice.

From his perch, Xander was able to see that the ensouled vampire was looking past Buffy and Azula and looking down the street from where they had came. Swiveling his head, Xander saw what he saw and almost fell off the wall. It wasn't that there were a lot of them, cause there weren't Yes, the four of them were outnumbered four-to-one, but they had all faced worse odds. It wasn't even that it wasn't just vampires that had gone and grouped themselves together, because even though there were four blocky demons that seemed to mad up of actual earth mixed in with them, vampires and demons working together had become more and more common recently. No, none of this was that troubling. What was unnerving was the fact that none of them were rushing towards their little group. Hell, they weren't moving at all. The small army of monsters simply stood there, half a block away, staring at them.

These weren't the usual riff raff that Sunnydale was used to seeing. Not even the vampires that Wolfram and Hart had sent were this well organized. The type of vampires that Sunnydale usually drew tended to be more of the more ordinary. They would only gather in small numbers, maybe five, and hunt for some unsuspecting victim every few nights and that would be it. They all tended to be the same in terms of fighting prowess and didn't last longer than a few years since Buffy had come to town.

By comparison, the vampires Wolfram and Hart used were more hired gun than anything else. More efficient, violent, and better at working in large groups, but once you got passed the fangs, they weren't any more frightening in there expensive suits. Something about being in a work environment took the edge off their fighting, which was better than the typical vampire, but still not fun. They made up for it with being bigger and harder to physically bring down and also by being smarter, but it wasn't enough.

These vampires though, there was something different about them. There was no matching uniform to mark them as one, there were equal amounts of suits in varying taste as well as jeans and t-shirts. Their ages and times of death also had no underlining theme and sexes didn't play a part in it either, but there was definitely something that screamed, _"We Are One!"_ The way they stood completely still, the way all of them were completely relaxed as if they couldn't care less about moving in on them, it all spoke of something that had been rehearsed.

_'That was it!'_ Xander thought loudly. He recognized it from every military movie he had ever seen and all of the images from Aang's life, especially the last few years of it. All of the armies he had seen practicing, all of the routines and movements had witnessed, it was the same thing with this group. _'They've had training.'_

Xander looked down and found Azula looking up at the same time to catch his eye. It was on her face, the conclusion he had drawn was confirmed. Turning to Buffy and Angel, he saw Angel look up at him as well and give a nod. It only made sense, really. Angel had been alive going on two hundred years. He was bound to have seen a few armies in his time. Giving it a second thought, it was possible Angelus might have even eaten a few.

Buffy was the only one who didn't realize what it meant, but she knew as well as the rest of them that there was something different about this group of demons. Already she had pulled a stake out of her bag, handed one to Angel, and had another one out for herself. Four against sixteen wasn't a crazy odd given what the four of them could do, three, really, since Xander wanted to keep Azula out of the fight, but it was different. Even if all of them were fighting, four ragtag fighters against sixteen trained and possibly highly efficient demonic troops was a completely different story.

"Who wants to take our chances with the creepy ass graveyard with the self opening gate and who wants to deal with the mad mob of vamps and demons?" Buffy asked, already backing up.

"Personally, I'd go for running away till we get behind a nice, safe, two inch thick steel door, but I'm open to other suggestions," Xander quipped. Looking down, he said to Azula, _"{Stay with me, don't run off, and don't fight. And whatever you do, _do not_ Firebend. Got it?}"_

She tensed, ready to argue, but then seemed to change her mind. Only nodding her head in agreement, Azula started backing away as well.

"I'll buy us a minute or two and then we'll catch up with you two."

"If we cut through to the south side, there's an opening in the wall that we can use and then head for my place," Buffy told him. "We'll head straight up the middle till you catch up."

Nodding, Xander eyed the statue like group and thought about how best to deal with them. Directly, while not an Airbenders forte, was the best way at the moment. "On my mark," he said, preparing himself. Tensing his legs, taking a deep breath, he shouted, "Now!"

Jumping high into the air, Xander pulled as much of the element to him as possible, using his momentum to build it further. Reaching the crescendo of his jump, Xander started to spin, twisting the air around him, and angling himself towards the street and the group of creatures. While he continued to spin relatively slowly, the air around him spun faster and faster. By the time his feet touched the ground, it was almost impossible to see with the amount of dust and strewn garbage and leaves it had picked up. That didn't stop him from shoving the mini-tornado right at the demons. Even though they had started moving the moment Buffy and Angel had taken off, they didn't stand a chance.

The tornado hit the horde dead on and picked up a good quarter of them without slowing down, tossing them out of the opening and dropping them onto the rest of their companions. Those not grabbed up by the funnel were distracted not only by their pals landing on top of them, but also from the severe sand blasting the dust and dirt gave them while pebbles became missiles that bruised and broke skin. It was only going to last less than a handful of seconds, but Xander didn't want to risk anyone in the town getting hurt or anything being destroyed. But a few seconds were all they needed.

_"{Come on,}" _he barked. He felt Azula fall into step with him as he ran past her and didn't spare her a second glance. She was listening to him, following his orders and not making a fuss about it. Obviously, he had over looked something and it was going to bite him in the ass.

_'Worry about Azula setting you on fire later and start worrying about the vamps that are going to be coming up behind us in a minute,' _he thought irritably.

Spotting Buffy and Angel in the distance, Xander picked up his speed hoping to catch up with them quickly. He and Azula covered half the distance between them and Buffy before the ground erupted in flames. Instinctively, Xander grabbed Azula's wrist and brought them both up short. Remembering who it was that was with him, he quickly let go and gave her a hard, accusatory look.

She responded with a roll of her eyes and turned away from him, beginning to scan the area. It didn't take long before she found something.

_"{I'm fairly certain that even _that_ isn't something normal even for this world, correct?}"_

It took a second, but he finally saw what she was referring to. Above a mausoleum, dressed in what was probably once a very nice and expensive dark blue dress was Willow. Not his Willow, of course, but the vampire version of his friend. The once elegant dress had been slit all the up to hip on both legs, allowing her to move more freely and show off a lot of pale flesh at the same time. Not that Xander was looking, not in the least. He also refused to acknowledge that he was noticing the fact that Vamp Willow had made other tears and holes in the fabric showing off even more skin.

It was a cold comfort to know that even in a dire situation like this, even after everything that had changed with him that his teenage libido could still come out in full force. Forcing his eyes away from the bared skin, and his mind away from some _very_ disturbing thoughts, Xander found himself at a loss for words. Vamp Willow wasn't standing on the mausoleum. No, that would have been too plain, too ordinary. Instead, she was a good three inches above the roof. Her face was tilted down towards the fire, her eyes blacker than crude oil, and her hair wiped around in a wind that no one else felt.

_"{Isn't that your friend?}" _Azula asked while the fire continued to burn next to them.

_"{Long story,}" _he replied. _"{Looks like her, but trust me. That is not her.}"_

"Tsk tsk, Xander," Vamp Willow chastised. "Don't you know it's bad keeping secrets?"

"Secrets? Me? What would make you say that?" Xander asked without taking his eyes off her while trying inching back.

Letting out a sharp laugh, Vamp Willow shook her head. "You've been naughty. You didn't even _try_ to find me, did you? And here you are, throwing around my minions and running around with some other girl. If I didn't know you so well, I might be getting a bit cranky."

Eyes wide, Xander stopped moving and chanced a look at to the right. Sure enough, the crowd of vampires and demons had made their way into the cemetery and were approaching him and Azula. Not quickly, they didn't seem to be in a hurry, but they were covering the ground well enough. Azula caught on quicker than he had and had turned her body so she could keep bother Vamp Willow and the oncoming horde in her sights.

A wall of fire on the left, cutting off the best route of escape as well as their only source of help and to the right, a small army of demons. His only aid was a person he couldn't trust at the best of times and he was facing a demon that had pretty much kicked all of their asses every time they had encountered her and she wanted to make him her special friend. Oh how he wished he had a flying bison right about now. But, since wishes were in short supply, and not to be said out loud, there was only one thing he could think of. Stall.

"Well, the important thing is you're here now, right? I mean, you look, uh, lovely and that dress is really working for you."

Shaking her head, Vampire Willow took one step forward and glided to the ground. "It's not going to work, you know. Stalling, hoping that the blonde Slayer and Puppy come to help, it isn't going to happen." Wagging her finger at him, she added, "And don't you even think about using any of that flashy elemental magic, Mister. I'd hate to see my minions hurt you too much. You know, before I got my own licks in."

_"{Most of the things attacking us appear to be leeches,}" _Azula said low, barely loud enough for him to hear. _"{I shouldn't have any problem disposing of them which would leave us only with-"}_

_ "{No!}"_ Xander said on reflex. It had become second nature to him to just shut down any idea of Azula getting into a fight. He had to admit, though, her Firebending would come in pretty handy right about now. He was pretty sure that even Vamp Willow would have a hard time going up against the crazed Princess. Maybe, if he was lucky, they would finish each other off.

"Hey!" Vamp Willow growled. She turned to Azula, shifting her face into the more frightening demonic version. Almost instantly, she shifted back to the human face and gave the other girl a dirty look. "What did I say about secrets and making me cranky?"

As Vampire Willow began to try and stare Azula down, growling softly as she did so, Xander noticed two things. One, the gang of vampires and demons hadn't made a move on them yet. Either they were waiting for word from Willow to do anything, or there was some other reason they weren't coming for them. Maybe they just instinctively knew to stay out of this before they were ripped to shreds. Maybe they also didn't feel like getting caught in another mini-twister.

The second thing, and much more important, was the two figures sneaking up on Vampire Willows back. He never would have noticed it had Buffy's yellow hoodie not been so damn identifiable with the fire casting its light everywhere. Angel was closer and, as he watched, breath caught in his throat, he had a stake poised and ready to strike home. Angel was so damn close it was almost too much tension to bear. After what seemed like an eternal few seconds, Angel stood directly behind the vamped out bizarro Willow. Finally, he struck out with the stake with such speed that Xander didn't have any hope of seeing it happen. Which was exactly why he was left wondering how in the hell Vampire Willow had managed to turn around, grab Angel's wrist and throat, and lift him a good three inches off the ground without getting staked.

"Bad Puppy," Willow said with a gleam in her eye. "You'll have to be punished." Turning to the horde, she smiled. "Get them."

With those two words, chaos erupted in the graveyard. The group of vampires and demons separated into teams of four, each of them running in different directions before heading towards them, hoping to break each of them off from the rest. If Xander hadn't insisted on Azula staying so close to him, it might have worked. Instead, the two of them took off running deeper into the cemetery to keep themselves from being torn apart. It did move them further away from Buffy and Angel, but there was no way to get to them without going through the vampires and dirt demons, as Xander began calling them in his head. The latter, by the way, had suddenly learned how to move with a disturbing amount of speed and skill. It struck him as kind of unfair that something so bulky could move so fast.

The vampires, apparently, had been holding back before. Even though they had broken into smaller groups, they made sure that none of them were too close to any of the others. The vampires kept darting around head stones or jumping on top of the many mausoleums that dotted the grounds. The dirt demons didn't bother with any such subtlety. He knew that they had legs, but that didn't mean they had to use them. Instead they planted them in the earth and rushed forward, easily moving around the cemetery with a serpentine like grace. It reminded Xander of the way some Earthbenders would move and idly he wished he knew at least the basics of the art.

All in all, it kept everyone too far apart for using his Airbending to be very effective. By the time he stopped and took care of one or two of them, the rest would be on him. Running while coming up with a better plan was the only option at the moment.

"_{Yes, I can certainly see why you wouldn't want me to use my Firebending,}" _Azula said, sarcastically. _"{This is _so much _better!}"_

Grounding his teeth and leaping over a tombstone, he shouted, _"{Fine! Flash fry them, burn them, torch the whole damn lot of them, just do it!}"_

Hopping on top of a tombstone in her way, and jumping from on to the next with ease, she landed next to him smirking. _"{No.}"_

"_{No?}"_ he repeated exasperated. _"{What the hell do you mean 'no'?}"_

"_{You told me not to,}" _she said simply. _"{I would hate for you to think that I wouldn't listen to you.}"_

Her patronizingly sweet voice grated on his nerves. She wasn't going to fight just because he had told her not to when she suggested it to him. She wouldn't hold to it if it meant her getting hurt, but how far would she take it if his own life was in jeopardy? They couldn't keep running forever and he didn't know how well Azula would fair at hand to hand against these things. The girl may be a prodigy at fighting, bending, and stratagem, but she had never faced anything like demons before. Yet, even though he knew she knew that, she refused to do anything!

With a growl of frustration, Xander skidded to a stop, and turned. Spotting the nearest target, a vampire that was preparing to jump onto a mausoleum, he took aim and fired an air blast that sent the blood sucker sailing in the opposite direction. He didn't bother seeing where he landed or how far he had flown and instead started eyeing his next target. This time, it was one of the dirt demons that was coming up fast, dodging back and forth with ease. Lining up his shot, he bent down low to the ground before sweeping his arm upwards. A thin wave of air tore across the ground quicker than the demon could move. When it made contact it didn't cut through the creature or knock it back. The damn thing exploded in a shower of dust, rocks, and twigs.

He paused for a second, not really expecting that sort of reaction. True, he had put a bit more into the attack than he should have, but it shouldn't have done that! A normal person would have been hurt, badly, but they would have been whole. He didn't expect a demon, even a weak skinned one at that, wouldn't have been hurt more than that, probably less. This thing, however, just fell apart, almost as if it was barely holding itself together. He had no idea what those things were, but they weren't normal. Well, normal for demons anyway.

In that short amount of time, most of the vampires had them almost surrounded and the remaining dirt _thing_ wasn't far behind. A few steps back and Xander found himself back-to-back with Azula. Her hands were up in a fighting pose, of course not one of defense. True to her word she hadn't used a bit of Firebending yet.

"_{Wood through the heart and decapitation, correct?}" _Azula asked sharply.

"_{Yes,}"_ he hissed back. _"{And, you know, _fire_ would do the trick!}"_

"_{Then, by all means, use fire.}"_

There wasn't any time to argue with her. The first of their attackers were starting to get aggressive. While four of the vampires did move quickly, they didn't run in blindly. Fast, but cautious, was far more dangerous. It made it that much harder to fight against them or use one of them against the other. So when one of them got in close, swiping a clawed hand at his face, forcing him to block he didn't have enough time to defend himself from the side kick to his midsection from another one. He grunted with the hit and could practically feel the bruise already begin to form, but he didn't go down. He managed to hook his arm around the offending leg and, twisting his hip, tossed the vampire into his friend with a bit of an assist with Airbending.

Feeling Azula respond to his movement, he continued to turn and she did the same till both of them had made a one-eighty. Using the spin, Xander whipped both of his arms out to either side when he came to a stop, sending out a large half-dome of air and knocking several vampires away. From there, things got to be a bit of a mess.

There was no longer any kind of coordinated attack on them from the vampires, but an all out free for all. Each of them would come at them as fast as they could trying to distract them long enough for one of their comrades to get in close or, perhaps, just hopping they would be quick enough to take them down themselves. They attacked with an almost desperate zeal, making attempts that had almost no chance of succeeding.

None of it mattered though. He and Azula seemed to be untouchable as they worked as one to repel their foes. Keeping their backs together, they could always feel how the other was moving, what was going on behind them. It was more like dancing then defending. If she bent low to avoid a hit, Xander would bend backwards to slam her attacker with a blast of air. If he focused on a singular vampire and left his side open, she would be there forcing back any of the others that tried to take advantage with a vicious combination of kicks and strikes. Just because she wasn't using her bending didn't mean the girl wasn't dangerous. At one of the many points when they switched positions, she rolled over his back as he went low, bringing her leg crashing down on the neck of an incoming vampire. It was still on the ground thrashing about as they continued to fight.

Even as fit as they were, there wasn't any way to keep this going for long. Vampire didn't tire nearly as fast as they would and sooner or later they would slip up and it would all be over. Worse yet was the fact that Xander had no idea how Buffy and Angel were fairing against Vamp Willow. One-on-one fighting and he'd put all his money on Buffy, but _this_ Willow wouldn't play fair. She obviously had access to magic that their Willow didn't and had no qualms about using it.

As if on cue, a bright blue light shined somewhere not too far from them, followed by an explosion of dirt and stone. More of those dirt creatures started to form and pull themselves from the ground, six in total from what he could see, making their way from where Xander had seen the explosion come from. Most of them started moving away, but two of them started shambling towards him and Azula. Slowly at first, but picking up speed as they got used to moving.

The explosion caused enough of a distraction to get Xander's attention and a nearby vampire took advantage of it, landing a punch to the right of his temple. The follow up might have done serious damage, but Azula managed to pull him out of the way in time, earning her a long angry red scratch up her arm from the creature's nails.

That was the end of the fight.

Azula, taking one look at her arm and one look at the vampire, ended everything right then and there. Fire lanced out of her fist quicker than any of the vampires could react. Most of them died before understanding what was going on. Those that managed to turn and try to run, died without making it more than five steps, blue flame blasting through them, incinerating them almost instantly.

The dirt creatures didn't fare any better. Azula made short of them, slicing each of them on half with a fire whip. What bits of wood and twigs that was inside of them turned to kindling. The remaining three fell to the ground, crumbling and smoking.

She didn't bother saying anything to him when she was finished, she didn't even bother to stop. Giving the area a quick scan, one that Xander was sure she saw everything with, Azula started off in the direction that the light had been in. Scrambling to his feet, Xander quickly followed. They didn't have very far to go before they found the real fight.

Buffy was occupied by the four dirt creatures that, he assumed, Willow had conjured up a few moments ago, the rest of them nowhere to be seen. He could only assume that she had made short work of them. These four were more than enough to keep her from getting to Angel and without a weapon she wasn't having any luck with taking them down for good. The other vampires, at least, seemed to have been taken care of as well. That just left Vampire Willow playing with Angel. She played rough, it seemed.

"You know, I don't remember it taking this long last time to break you in," Vamp Willow said with an exasperated sigh. "You were more malleable, more weak, more…scarred."

She flicked her wrist and Angel, who had been struggling to stand up, flew to his feet as if picked up by some invisible hand. He looked like he had gone ten rounds with the werewolf version of Mike Tyson as he hung suspended in the air. Deep dark bruises could be seen on his pale flesh, even in the relative light of the wall of fire that still burned nearby. Blood dripped and oozed from several cuts on his face and arms while it practically flowed out from the long gash along his stomach. He looked beaten, worn out, and probably couldn't stand under his own power if given the chance. Still, he struggled. It was pointless and did absolutely no good, but he struggled and growled and tried to break free from the invisible hold on him and tear out Vamp Willow's throat.

Willow, meanwhile, didn't look like she had even broken a sweat. Still wrapped in power and sultry and disturbing elegance, she stood there, watching him with a half smile. When she turned to face Xander and Azula, something in her eyes made his stomach drop.

"Well, doesn't really matter. I've got better toys now." She winked at them before turning back to Angel. "Bad puppy," she said with glee before jerking her hand upright.

Purple-black fire erupted from beneath Angel as quick as anything that Xander had ever seen. It didn't so much consume him as it did spread over him. Even as the souled vampire opened his mouth to scream, Xander could see the flames rushing down his throat, silencing any sound he was about to make. It was horrific to watch, but impossible to look away. It all seemed to happen in slow motion for him. The fire, Angel withering in unspeakable agony, the realization on Buffy's face as she saw it happening even as she fought fruitlessly. Then, just like that, Angel was gone and the only thing left was the smell of burnt ozone in the air.

The moment Angel was the gone, time snapped back into normal speed again. Xander launched himself at Vampire Willow, kicking out with both feet and driving her back with a blast of air. It didn't do much in the way of damage, but it gave Azula an opening. Before, Xander was willing to do anything to keep her from fighting and, above all else, Firebending. Now he wanted nothing more than for her to cut loose and take down the abomination that looked like his friend as fast as possible.

She didn't disappoint. Azula's opening attack was a pinwheel of fire as tall as her waist. It tore through the ground, blazing a trail straight for the undead witch. Willow wouldn't have any time to react. She would be roasted and blasted into little bits and that would be the end of it.

Xander knew he shouldn't have tempted the universe with such surety. It's the only thing that kept the surprise off his face when Vamp Willow managed to stop the wheel of fire several inches before it hit her. Her out stretched hand shook a bit, but that was the only sign that she was having any difficulty. The fire continued to burn and spin wildly, but it stayed exactly where it was.

"Neat trick," Willow said with honest admiration. Grinning madly, she added, "Mines better."

Spreading her arms, the blue flame changed to black and split into three smaller disks of fire. Without hesitation, they flew towards Azula leaving light trails in their wake. Magical fire, it seemed, was no different than the fire that Azula could bend, at least not in any way that mattered at the moment. The Princess blocked all three with swipes of her fist, following it up by sending out two arches of fire from a pair of sharp kicks. They didn't fare any better than the pinwheel, but Willow didn't try to control them this time. Crossing her arms over her chest and murmuring to herself, the flames died out as the hit her, leaving her unharmed.

Azula frowned slightly, shifting her weight, and readied herself. Xander had no idea how long it had been since she had had a real fight but she obviously had been expecting this to go a bit differently. He, himself, had been kind of hoping the same thing. If Azula had been able to dust Vampire Willow in one go then things would have gone so much easier. This alone seemed to been reason enough for that not to happen.

"_{Save the Slayer,}" _Azula told him. _"{This one is mine.}"_

With that, she went back on the attack, sending blast after blast of intense fire at the undead witch. Each one was either parried or simply absorbed, but the constant pressure that Azula was putting on her didn't leave her anytime to launch a counter attack. Which was all Azula could really do at this point, Xander thought. Firebenders weren't known for their defensive skills. By keeping Willow on the ropes it kept Azula right where she wanted to be, attacking.

Xander ground his teeth in frustration, but leapt high into the air towards Buffy. She was in a near blind rage, striking out at the dirt creatures with fist, knees, feet, elbows and, in one instance, a rather vicious head butt for all the good it did her. None of them did much more than drive her attackers back from the sheer force of her blows. Her face was scrunched up in fury and didn't seem to notice that she wasn't having any effect on them. She continued to lash out at anything that got to close.

Landing with a roll, Xander swung his leg out, cutting off the nearest monsters legs with a slice of air. It fell to the ground and continued to move, but it wasn't getting far on just its arms. He chose to focus on the other three, which was just as well since one of them had stopped going after Buffy and had turned to face him. It was the last thing it got to do. The brief, but strong, gust of wind was more than a match for its hulking form. Getting lifted off the ground and thrown into a tree had it shattering like a dirt clod.

He was going to start on the two remaining creatures when Willow's voice grabbed his attention.

"You know, I can keep this up all night if I have to. But you, well, you're looking a little out of shape there."

Turning, he saw Azula and Willow standing off again. The ground around the vampire was smoking and burnt black, but she had remained untouched. The most that Azula's fire had managed to do was push her back till she was almost flush against a mausoleum. Azula was a bit worn down, but also untouched. But the witch was right, Azula was looking tired. The Princess hadn't had much exercise or practice in her art since her arrival and Xander doubted that she had any while locked up. This was the first time that she had exerted herself in a long while and it was showing. Her chest puffed out more with each breath and there was a sheen of sweat on her brow. She wasn't done, but he had no idea how much longer she could last.

Then he saw it. The slight upturn in Azula's mouth, the sudden shine in her eyes, the general aura of smugness that surrounded her. This was Azula. This was the Firebender that struck fear into her opponents and terrified anyone who had even heard of her. It wasn't because of her power. It was because of her intelligence. She knew after her first attack that she wouldn't have been able to best Willow with fire, not even her extra destructive brand of hellish blue flames. Still, she kept attacking. But they weren't just to keep her occupied they were to back her into a corner, to set her up. There was only one thing that Azula could do that vampire might not be able to block against, something that could overpower the witch, and now Xander knew her plan as well.

Once he saw her hands start to move, Xander went into motion. With all the grace of a defensive tackle, Xander slammed himself into Buffy, catching her around the waist and dragging her to the ground. The two creatures lumbered after them, but came to a halt shortly after they hit the ground. The air around them changed. The cemetery smelled like ozone and the hairs on Xander's arms stood up as both he and Buffy watched Azula move her arms around from their spot on the floor. Sparks jumped from her two extended fingers as they cut through the air.

Before Buffy could ask what was going on, Azula struck.

Power and energy scarcely seen outside of the most violent thunderstorms suddenly appeared in the middle of the clear night sky. Lightning flashed across the starless blackness briefly before it found itself blazing from Azula's fingers. It was slower than normal lightening, but not by much. The path wasn't as straight, either, but that didn't matter. Azula was hurling freaking lightning bolts. A straight and narrow path was hardly a concern.

Like before, Willow attempted to block herself from the blast, crossing her arms like she had done before. It was no use this time though. Bright white light blinded them for a moment, followed by a deafening boom that, this close to the blast, they could feel in their bones.

When the spots cleared from his vision, Xander was far from surprised by what he saw. The entire wall of the mausoleum was gone. A few stone bricks had survived and were on the grass blackened and crackling as they cooled. The roof, like the stones, had been superheated and was beginning to rapidly loose heat causing it split and break apart. Needless to say, there was no sign of Vampire Willow anywhere. There was no point in looking for a pile of dust, she had been vaporized. There was dust and dirt everywhere, some of which was made up of the dirt creatures. The pair of them had fallen apart now that Willow was gone. Whatever magic she had used to hold them together must have died when she did.

Azula straightened herself, holding her head high. The smirk she wore could only be from defeating her enemy so thoroughly, Xander thought. Not that it was something new for her, far from it. But it had been a long time for her and she reveled in the feeling. It was one of the things that made her so frightening. She fed on the thrill and power she got from crushing someone. The grin was evil, merciless, and completely natural on her face.

His thoughts were brought back to the moment when Buffy disentangled herself from him and slowly stood up. Xander watched her walk with tentative, purposeful steps. She wasn't crying or falling apart, but she wasn't completely there either. Her movements were too stiff, too mechanical for her to be alright. Not that he expected her to be. Her boyfriend, someone she loved, had just been killed in front of her. He'd be more worried if she had been acting fine. He still had to watch her, though. She could go either way at the moment. If she cried, then he would need to be there for her. If she went into a fit of rage, well, he would have to figure out how to take down his friend with super human strength without hurting her or getting pummeled into paste.

Just as he was about to get up, Azula turned to face Buffy, making him freeze. It was like watching a car careen out of control in slow motion. He knew that the next moment was going to be probably messy and ugly, but there was nothing he could do about it.

The smirk was gone from the Firebenders who now stood stoic. Neither moved till Azula spoke.

"The vampire is dead."

Other than the slight lilt in her tone as she said _vampire_, unused to the word, her voice was as hard to read as ever. She paused as she walked past Buffy, a small sign that there was something going on inside her head besides typical Azula thoughts. What those thoughts might be were beyond Xander's understanding. He was just glad that she hadn't continued to set the whole graveyard on fire.

As Azula reached Xander, she met his eyes. Again, there was something that she was saying with the look that wasn't typical for her. And, just like before, Xander couldn't tell what it was she meant by it.

Rolling her eyes, she said, _"{Comfort her, you idiot.}"_

Snapping out of it, Xander quietly walked to Buffy, making sure that he stayed inside her peripheral vision. She made no move to keep him away. When he got within three steps of her, Xander saw her legs give out from under her and he quickly caught her, guiding her to ground as she collapsed against him and began to cry. Holding her awkwardly, he thought about the look Azula had given him, about what her pause had meant, and it suddenly dawned on him. It was compassion.

Things, he decide, had become much more complicated.


End file.
